I. Summary

Landon K., a six-year-old boy with autism, was in first
grade at his Mississippi elementary school when his assistant principal, "a
big, 300-lb man, picked up an inch thick paddle and paddled him [on the
buttocks]." His grandmother, Jacquelyn K., reported, "my child just lost it ...
he was screaming and hollering ... it just devastated him." Jacquelyn knew that
paddling was harmful for children with autism: "I had already signed a form
saying they couldn't paddle. I sent that form in every year ... When a child
with autism has something like that happen, they don't forget it. It's always
fresh in their minds."

Landon was traumatized and became terrified of school. "He
was a nice, quiet, calm boy," noted Jacquelyn, but after the paddling, "he was
screaming, crying, we had to call the ambulance, they had to sedate him ... The
next day, I tried to take him to school, but I couldn't even get him out of the
house. He was scared of going over there, scared it would happen again ... We
carried him out of the house, he was screaming. We got him to school but had to
bring him back home ... Now he has these meltdowns all the time. He can't
focus, he cries."

Jacquelyn withdrew Landon from school, fearing for his
physical safety and mental health. She was threatened by truant officers: "[They]
said I'd go to jail if I didn't send him back to school ... If I felt he would
have been safe in school, he would have been there. I'm sure they would have
paddled him again. I don't trust them. If they don't know what they're dealing
with, how can they teach a child? And the sad thing about it, he can learn. He
can learn."[1]

* * *

Jonathan C., a 15-year-0ld boy with autism, was repeatedly
subjected to corporal punishment at his Florida school. On October 2, 2008, for
example, he was picked up by a male staff member and thrown "into the tile
floor, face-first," after screaming in the cafeteria and running away from a
staff member. Staff members dragged him to a meeting room, where the male staff
member "put him in a chokehold. Other staff members [came] running. Three or
four of them tackle[d] him, and he [was] thrown to the floor again." The staff
members used their strength and body weight to pin Jonathan, face-down, to the
floor.

After Jonathan sustained injuries, including a deep cut to
the bridge of his nose and bruises to his forehead, Rose C., Jonathan's mother,
was able to obtain video of her son's treatment at school. She was shocked. "They
had been picking him up, throwing him into the tile floor like a wrestler. They'd
... pick him up by all four limbs. You can see where they're dragging him ...
They're carrying him like a wild animal."

Jonathan started to get more and more agitated during the
months he was subjected to physical abuse. He was "having aggressive episodes,
he was knocking people over ... I asked him, what was wrong." Jonathan, like
many children with autism, has limited communication abilities. "He can't
explain ... Every time he got upset, he would scream at the top of his lungs ...
He was throwing fits because he was getting hurt."Ultimately, Rose
withdrew her son from school and enrolled him in a different program.
Nonetheless, she feels considerable guilt. "I trusted the school, I trusted
them to do the right thing ... All this abuse happened on my watch. It never
should have happened. I feel so guilty."[2]

* * *

A 2008 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)/Human Rights
Watch report found that corporal punishment in public schools is routine in
many parts of the US, and that almost a quarter-of-a-million school children
were subjected to this violent, degrading punishment in the 2006-2007 school
year.[3]
Twenty states permit corporal punishment; in states where the practice is
permitted, hundreds of school districts make routine use of it. Corporal
punishment comes with risk of serious physical injury and lasting mental
trauma. Studies show that beatings can damage the trust between educator and
student, corrode the educational environment, and leave the student unable to
learn effectively, making it more likely that she will drop out of school.

Students with disabilities-who are entitled to appropriate, inclusive
educational programs that give them the opportunity to thrive-are subjected to
violent discipline at disproportionately high rates. Students with disabilities
make up 19 percent of those who receive corporal punishment, yet just 14
percent of the nationwide student population. Human rights law protects
students with disabilities from violence and cruel and inhuman treatment, and
guarantees them non-discriminatory access to an inclusive education. Furthermore,
as President Obama noted when signing the UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities on July 24, 2009, US law has attempted to ensure that
"children with disabilities were no longer excluded ... and then no longer
denied the opportunity to learn the same skills in the same classroom as other
children."[4]
Yet in countless US public schools, students with disabilities-who already face
barriers to attaining a quality education-face physical violence that further
discourages them from reaching their full potential.

Corporal Punishment of Students with Disabilities

Much of the corporal punishment in US public schools takes
the form of paddling. This report focuses on public schools, including
mainstream schools (some of which have special education classrooms within
those schools) and alternative schools.[5]
Some students are paddled, or, in other words, hit on the buttocks several
times with a wooden board resembling a shaved-down baseball bat. The punishment
causes immediate pain, and in some cases, lasting injury and mental trauma.
Paddling, which is legal in 20 states, is routinely used at disproportionately
high rates against students with disabilities.

Students with disabilities are routinely subjected to other
forms of physical discipline in addition to paddling, impeding their rights to
education.[6]
Corporal punishment is defined as "any punishment in which physical force is
used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort."[7]
According to interviews conducted for this report, students with disabilities
have been subjected to a wide range of corporal punishment, including hitting
children with rulers; pinching or striking very young children; grabbing
children with enough force to bruise; throwing children to the floor; and
bruising or otherwise injuring children in the course of restraint.

Under human rights law, physical force may only be used
against students where it is absolutely necessary to protect a child or others,
and even then the principle of the minimum necessary amount of force for the
shortest period of time must apply. Physical force with intent to punish is
never acceptable, and is especially abusive when used to punish students for conduct
related to their disabilities.

Lasting Injuries and Barriers to Education

Corporal punishment can cause deep bruising or other lasting
physical or mental injury. Furthermore, it creates a violent, degrading school
environment in which all students-and particularly students with disabilities-may
struggle to succeed. Research indicates that corporal punishment is rarely
effective in teaching students to refrain from violent behavior, and that it
causes students to become disengaged and reluctant to learn.

The Society for Adolescent Medicine has documented serious
medical consequences resulting from corporal punishment, including severe
muscle injury, extensive blood clotting (hematomas), whiplash damage, and
hemorrhaging. Many children whose stories are documented in this report
sustained serious injuries from paddling. Deena S.'s middle school son, who has
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), was badly bruised from paddling:
"They were deep bruises. Not marks. They measured three inches by four inches.
In the center of the bruises it was kind of clear. They ended up turning real
dark. This wasn't just a little red mark, this was almost black."[8]

Some students were taken to hospital after severe episodes
of corporal punishment. Theresa E.'s five-year-old granddaughter with autism
was physically punished at her Georgia elementary school: "You could see the
bruising. Her whole arm was swollen by the time she got to the emergency room.
Her right arm. The doctor said it looked like she'd been hit by a baseball bat
or had been in a motorcycle accident."[9]

All corporal punishment, whether or not it causes
significant physical injury, violates students' rights to physical integrity, and
prevents students from attaining a decent education. As a consequence of the
helplessness and humiliation felt by those who experience corporal punishment,
some students become angry or depressed. Several parents of students with
disabilities reported that their children became more aggressive, more likely
to lash out at peers or family members, and more likely to injure themselves.
Students may become withdrawn and deeply reluctant to go back to school.

Aggravating Medical
Conditions for Students with Disabilities

Corporal punishment, which is
never appropriate for any child, is particularly abusive for students with
disabilities whose medical conditions may be worsened as a consequence of the
punishment itself. For instance, one advocate we interviewed drew a connection
between pain crises and paddling in her students with sickle cell anemia:[10]
"any kind of mental or physical stress can be a pain trigger for these students
for a pain crisis ... If they're paddled, it's an immediate trigger for a
possible moderate to severe pain crisis."[11]

Among families we interviewed, episodes of corporal
punishment directly preceded children's regression in developmental terms, particularly
for children with autism. Several students with autism became self-injurious following
episodes of corporal punishment, though they had previously not exhibited
self-injurious behavior; others became more aggressive. Anna M.'s seven-year-old
son with an autism disorder who was physically punished now "struggles with
anger. Right after the incidents, he'd have anger explosions. I still can't
come up behind him and hug him. It's changed him."[12]

Punishment for Disabilities

According to our interviews, students with disabilities were
routinely punished for behaviors related to their disabilities, such as
Tourette Syndrome or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Students with autism
are particularly likely to be punished for behaviors common to their condition,
stemming from difficulties with appropriate social behavior. For instance, Landon,
the six-year-old with autism in Mississippi, was punished because he had a
melt-down when his routine was changed. Educators may not have access to
sufficient training on the nature of their students' disabilities or on best
practices for responding to behavior connected to those disabilities. As Karen
W., an Arkansas mother, noted of her son's school: "not one person in that
whole building had one day's training in autism."[13]

Students with disabilities-like all students-can thrive with
appropriate discipline. When students with disabilities are beaten for the
consequences of their disabilities, their rights to education and
non-discrimination are violated. Students with disabilities face considerable
barriers to success as it is; corporal punishment makes those barriers even
higher.

Disproportionality and Lack of Information

Nationwide, students with disabilities receive corporal
punishment at disproportionately high rates. In Tennessee, for example,
students with disabilities are paddled at more than twice the rate of the
general student population. These statistics may seem high, but they likely
undercount the full extent of violence against students with disabilities;
there is no mandated reporting for many types of corporal punishment that take
place. Some students with disabilities may exhibit behavioral problems in the
classroom, but that does not justify use of force.

Parents repeatedly voiced concerns that they were unaware of
the full extent of the violence used against their children, either because the
school district did not report it to them or because their children were unable
to verbalize what had happened. As Karen W., the mother of an Arkansas boy with
autism, commented, "it took [my son] a long time to tell me what happened. But
I'm a lot more fortunate than some of these parents."[14]
Where parents do not have access to information about abuse against their
children, they face obstacles to protecting their children from harm.

Parents' Inability to Protect Their Children

Parents may struggle to protect their children from violent
school discipline. Parents found that school districts did not respond
adequately to their complaints or requests to use more appropriate discipline
with their students. "We went to war, we really did,"[15]commented Karen W. After seeing their children injured in school, parents
feared for their child's physical safety. Anna M. observed, "I was afraid for
his life, to be honest. He was 52 pounds, or maybe even less, at this point."[16]

Ultimately, many parents felt they had no choice but to
withdraw their children from public school, despite the impact on family life
and the child's education. Theresa E. explained the dilemma, "We thought [our
granddaughter] needed school for socialization. I didn't think I could home school
her. Jessie's autistic ... I'm not sure I can educate her."[17]
Some parents were forced to stop working, like May R.: "I can't even get a job ...
I had to keep [my seven-year-old daughter with autism] safe. She had taken a
huge downturn."[18]

Many parents were left with a lingering sense of guilt and
responsibility. As Jacquelyn K. said of Landon, "I can imagine my little child
was just screaming and hollering, and I wasn't there to help him."[19]
Karen W. echoed this sentiment: "Oh, the guilt I live with.... I blame myself
for my ignorance. I didn't touch him or hurt him ... but if parents knew that
schools do this, the kids wouldn't be hurt."[20]

Best Practices and Success Stories

Though children are protected from corporal punishment in
most US juvenile detention centers and mental health facilities, they are still
vulnerable in US public schools. Yet there are positive, nonviolent approaches
to school discipline that have been proven to lead to safe environments in
which children can learn. Positive behavioral supports (PBS) teach children why
what they did was wrong and give them tools to improve their behavior. School
districts across the US have implemented PBS, and have seen substantial
declines in disciplinary referrals and improvements in school-wide safety.

International instruments, including the UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child, the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities, prohibit the use of cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment, regardless of circumstance. Corporal punishment also
violates other human rights, including the right to security of person and the
right to non-discrimination. Corporal punishment infringes on the right to
education. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in General
Comment 13 (on the right to education), not only describes corporal punishment
as "inconsistent with the fundamental guiding principle of human rights law"
but "welcomes initiatives taken by some States parties which actively encourage
the schools to introduce 'positive,' non-violent approaches to school
discipline."[21]

Positive behavioral supports allow for individualized
responses that can be particularly effective for students with disabilities.
One teacher in Mississippi mentioned her success stories, noting that the staff
"would talk to [students with disabilities] about the way they were behaving,
and set up incentives and goals to see if they could change their behavior.
This was a successful way to intervene."[22] Some parents
reported happily that their children were thriving in settings with positive behavioral
supports. Karen W. said of her son with autism, "He's now on the honor roll,
straight A student, in a mainstream school. This is remarkable. A year ago or
so, they were saying he could never, ever go back to public school."[23]

US federal and state governments can uphold children's
rights by banning corporal punishment and implementing PBS. With appropriate funding,
training, and support, educators can implement discipline systems that respond
to the fundamental needs of even the most vulnerable students, thus helping
produce environments in which every student can maximize his academic
potential.

II. Recommendations

The ACLU and Human Rights Watch recommend a complete
prohibition on the use of corporal punishment against all students in US
schools.[24]
Until that point, we recommend that federal and state governments and/or all
relevant school districts implement an immediate moratorium on the use of
corporal punishment against students with disabilities.

To the US Congress

Prohibit the use of corporal
punishment against students with disabilities, as defined by the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Define corporal punishment as any punishment
in which physical force, however light, is used with intent to discipline.

In particular, immediately
prohibit the use of corporal punishment to discipline students for
behaviors that are the consequences of their disabilities.

Prohibit the use of prone or "face-down"
restraint in schools.

Increase funding to states and
school districts to train all staff, including teachers and
para-professionals, on effective methods of school discipline (including
positive behavioral supports), and to provide for behavioral analysts and
counseling staff to improve the delivery of appropriate discipline to
students with disabilities.

Support measures to improve
school discipline through the implementation of positive behavior systems
by passing the Positive Behavior for Safe and Effective Schools Act (HR
2597).

Increase funding to Protection
and Advocacy programs to provide parents with resources to protect their
children, and to investigate allegations of abuse or neglect in schools.

(To the Senate): Ratify the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities without reservation.

To the President of the United States

Propose and urge Congress to
ban corporal punishment against students with disabilities in US schools.

Submit the Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on the Rights of
the Child to the US Senate for its consent to ratification.

To the US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights

Revise and expand the
collection of data on corporal punishment:

Direct all school districts in all states to report any
violence used by a staff member against a student.

Mandate that school districts
report all instances of restraint, and document whether that restraint
was used to respond to the immediate needs of safety for the child or
others, or whether it was used in order to discipline.

Promulgate national standards
limiting the use of force in public schools. Mandate that force be used
only when needed to protect a child or others, and that the principle of
the minimum necessary use of force for the shortest necessary period of
time must always apply.

Use the Office's investigative
mandate to:

pursue vigorously individual complaints of corporal
punishment that allege violations of the prohibition on discrimination in
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and

relying on statistical data and
other sources, initiate and complete compliance reviews for school
districts that demonstrate systemic issues in disparate rates of corporal
punishment for students with disabilities.

To State Legislatures

Prohibit the use of corporal
punishment against students with disabilities. Define corporal punishment
as any punishment in which physical force, however light, is used with
intent to discipline.

In particular, prohibit the
use of corporal punishment to discipline students for behaviors that are
the consequences of their disabilities.

Prohibit the use of prone or "face-down"
restraint in schools.

Repeal or modify existing
legislation that grants educators who use corporal punishment immunity
from civil lawsuits or criminal prosecution; permit civil lawsuits and
criminal prosecution for assault in schools.

Enact legislation requiring
school boards to incorporate positive behavior systems into individual
school district discipline policies and codes of conduct.

Increase funding to school
districts to train all staff, including teachers and para-professionals,
on effective methods of school discipline (including positive behavioral
supports), and to provide for behavioral analysts and counseling staff to
improve the delivery of appropriate discipline to students with
disabilities.

To State Governors and Departments of Education

Propose and implement an
immediate and complete ban on the use of corporal punishment against
students with disabilities. Define corporal punishment as any punishment
in which physical force, however light, is used with intent to discipline.

Promulgate state-wide
standards limiting the use of force in public schools. Mandate that force
be used only when needed to protect a child or others, and that the
principle of the minimum necessary use of force for the shortest necessary
period of time must always apply.

Promulgate state-wide
standards requiring training of all staff, including teachers and
para-professionals, on effective methods of school discipline (including
positive behavioral supports). Ensure that staff are trained on the strict
limits on permitted use of force in exceptional situations.

Implement a statistical review
system that tracks every instance of corporal punishment of any kind in
public schools. Authorities should be required to record each instance of
force used against a child, including use of restraint.

To School Boards, Superintendents, Principals, and Teachers

Revise discipline policies to
ensure that students with disabilities do not receive corporal punishment.

Institute alternative
discipline systems such as positive behavioral support systems.

Increase training programs to
ensure that all staff, including teachers and para-professionals, can use
effective methods of school discipline (including positive behavioral
supports). Ensure that all staff members are conscious of best practices
in responding to their students' individualized needs, including by
reaching out to local medical professionals who can assist in training.
Ensure that staff are trained on the strict limits on permitted use of
force in exceptional situations.

Provide for behavioral
analysts and counseling staff to improve the delivery of appropriate
discipline to students with disabilities.

Better utilize professionally
conducted behavioral assessments for students with disabilities; ensure
that those assessments include an evaluation of what individualized,
positive interventions can be used to provide effective incentives for
appropriate conduct.

III. Methodology

This report is based on 202 in-person and telephone
interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties
Union between December 2007 and June 2009. Some of these interviews were used
for a 2008 ACLU/Human Rights Watch report, A Violent Education: Corporal
Punishment of Children in US Public Schools. Telephone interviews were
conducted from Human Rights Watch or ACLU offices in New York.

We conducted interviews with experts and individuals
directly affected by corporal punishment, including parents, students,
teachers, administrators, and special education professionals. We interviewed
32 parents of students with disabilities, 18 teachers who have relevant
experience, and 15 officials (including current and former school board
members, superintendents, principals, and assistant principals). In
addition, we spoke with lawyers, advocates for students with disabilities, and
educational experts to obtain information on all sides of the issue.

We spoke directly with students who had been subjected to
corporal punishment, including students with and without disabilities. Where
students were too young, had disabilities that impeded their ability to
participate comfortably in an interview, or faced possible trauma, we spoke
instead with their parents.
This report incorporates data from the US Department of Education's Office for
Civil Rights (OCR), which measure prevalence of corporal punishment (and other
school discipline and educational tracking data) by school district, race,
gender, and enrollment in special education programming, among other criteria.
The OCR data provide the most reliable numbers presently available on the use
of corporal punishment in US public schools. However, as discussed in this
report, those numbers are likely undercounted, in part because routine violence
against students with disabilities is not always reported to OCR.
Before interviewing any subject, we obtained written or oral consent to use the
information obtained in the interview, and we determined whether the
interviewee wished to remain anonymous. We obtained written consent from all
in-person interviews, oral consent from those interviewed by telephone, and
parental consent to speak to minors aged 16 or younger. Participants did not
receive any material compensation in return for speaking with us. All
participants were informed of the purpose of the interview, its voluntary
nature, and the ways in which the data would be collected and used.
All children interviewed or discussed in this report are identified with
pseudonyms to safeguard their privacy and ensure there is no retaliation
against them. Because parents' names could be used to identify children,
parents are referred to only by first name and first initial of the last name.
In addition, all parents, teachers, administrators, school board members, or
other adults who requested confidentiality are identified by pseudonyms, and
this is indicated in the relevant citations. In some cases, certain other
identifying information such as school, town, or grade level also has been
withheld for the same reasons.

IV. Corporal Punishment in US Public Schools

Corporal punishment is routinely used against students with and without
disabilities in US public schools. Corporal punishment most often takes the
form of paddling: a wooden board swung repeatedly against the child's buttocks,
causing immediate pain and sometimes lasting injury. According to the most
recent data available from the US Department of Education, Office for Civil
Rights, 223,190 students nationwide were paddled at least once in the 2006-2007
school year, including at least 41,972 students with disabilities. Students
with disabilities are paddled at disproportionately high rates, given their
percentage of the student population.

In addition to paddling, other forms of violent discipline
are often used against students with disabilities. Corporal punishment is
defined under human rights law as "any punishment in which physical force is
used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort";[25]
there is no comprehensive definition of corporal punishment under US state or
federal law. The ACLU and Human Rights Watch documented cases of corporal
punishment including hitting children with a belt, a ruler, a set of rulers
taped together, or a toy hammer; pinching, slapping, or striking very young
children in particular; grabbing children around the arm, the neck, or
elsewhere with enough force to bruise; throwing children to the floor; slamming
a child into a wall; dragging children across floors; and bruising or otherwise
injuring children in the course of restraint.[26] Corporal
punishment is prohibited under international law and in many US settings, including most juvenile correction facilities,[27] yet it continues
in public schools.

As discussed later in this report, educators may use force under limited
circumstances to ensure a safe environment for their students, including
through physical restraint. Yet this must be strictly limited: international
human rights standards state that the use of force against students is only
permissible in exceptional circumstances, and even then only to a minimal
degree.[28]
Educators must be trained to respond to dangerous behavior, "both to minimize
the necessity to use restraint and to ensure that any methods used are safe and
proportionate to the situation and do not involve the deliberate infliction of
pain."[29]
Any force with intent to punish is prohibited,[30]
meaning that the vast majority of the violent techniques used in US public
schools amount to corporal punishment and violate human rights law.

Paddling

Paddling (also commonly called "swats," "pops," or "licks")
usually means hitting a student three or more times on the buttocks and upper
thighs with a wooden paddle.[31]
Charles B., the father of an 11-year-old Texas boy with attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder and dyslexia, described a paddling his son received in early 2009:

The first swat knocked [my son] down ... when he fell, the
principal said he had five seconds to get back up, or he'd start all over again
... it probably took him a minute and a half to get up again. They gave him two
more swats. Then the principal had to go to the nurse's office to get the
asthma inhaler, [my son] couldn't breathe ... When he came home from school, my
wife found the marks on him. When I came home at 8 [p.m.], we went to the
sheriff's office. He had severe bruising on his buttocks and on his lower back.
His butt was just covered.[32]

The paddle used to hit children is typically around 15
inches long, between two and four inches wide, and one-half inch thick, with a
six-inch handle at one end. One former teacher in Texas told the ACLU and Human
Rights Watch that he found shaved down baseball bats that were being used as
paddles, similar to those depicted below.[33]

Students are typically beaten by administrators
(principals, vice principals, or assistant principals) or teachers.[34]
The majority of paddlers in incidents described by our interviewees were male.
One Mississippi teacher and mother noted that the "swats are given by grown
men; some of them [are] good swingers."[35] Jacquelyn K., a Mississippi grandmother, commented, "[My grandson, who has autism], was in first grade ... This
AP [assistant principal], a big, 300 pound man, picked up an inch-thick paddle
and paddled him. My child just lost it."[36] According to our
interviews, students with disabilities were also struck by teacher's aides or
other para-professionals.[37]

When a student is paddled, she is typically told to stand with her hands on a
desk or a chair, so that the student is bent over.[38] These
stances are submissive, placing the student in a position with no opportunity
for self defense, even though he is being subjected to violent blows. Students
take steps to mitigate the blows, well aware of the pain they may face.One
Texas boy, who has ADHD and dyslexia, "wore extra clothing because he had
heard the coach hit hard."[39]

Other Physical Force Used Against Students

Physical force used to punish is never acceptable, yet
according to our interviews, a wide variety of violent tactics were used to
discipline students with disabilities. Under human rights law, the minimum use
of force for the shortest necessary period of time may be used where there is a
need to protect a child or others.[40]
Yet the instances of physical force documented by the ACLU and Human Rights
Watch were used to punish, not protect, the child, and go far beyond
permissible levels of force.

Students Hit with Other Objects

The ACLU and Human Rights Watch received reports of students
being struck with objects other than a paddle. Theresa E., a Georgia grandmother and primary caretaker of a girl with autism, learned that her five-year-old
granddaughter had been hit with a toy hammer, which the teacher allegedly used
to "tap [kindergarteners] on the forehead" but which did far more damage to her
granddaughter: "Jessie has a tactile sensory disorder. The school was aware she
had this problem ... I said to her, what feels like a tap to you feels like
something entirely different to this girl."[41]

We heard multiple reports of students being hit by teachers
with rulers, especially among younger children. A Mississippi middle school boy
was hit in fifth grade with a set of rulers taped together: "I was talking, it
was a group of students and she [the teacher] told us to come up to her desk
and she popped us on our palms ... this was with four rulers taped together."[42]

Theresa E. knows that her granddaughter was hit with another
object, but her granddaughter, who at the time was non-verbal (unable to
communicate as a symptom of her disability),[43]could
not tell her grandmother what that object was:

I was picking her up under her armpits, that's when she
started crying. You could see the bruising. Her whole arm was swollen by the
time she got to the emergency room. Her right arm. The doctor said it looked
like she'd been hit by a baseball bat or had been in a motorcycle accident.
That's the only time he'd seen injuries like that ... To this day, I have no
idea what they hit her with ... The human hand doesn't have that kind of
strength.[44]

Students Spanked, Pinched, Grabbed and Bruised, or
Beaten

Many students in families we interviewed were subjected to
violence in school without the use of an implement. This can constitute
corporal punishment; the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child lists examples
of corporal punishment as including "hitting ('smacking,' 'slapping,' 'spanking')
children, with the hand[.]"[45]

Punishments reported to us include spanking, pinching,
grabbing and bruising, and beating. Tom R.'s son, a boy with OCD, Tourette
Syndrome, and bipolar disorder, was in first grade when he was "spanked on his
behind. With an open hand. The teacher hit him. The times he told us about it-it
happened at least five or six times ... within a three month period of time
that he was there in first grade."[46]

One mother, Cynthia C., reports that her son, who has
significant congenital brain abnormalities and developmental delays, came home
from school with "pinch marks on him ... It kept going on, it started in
kindergarten. The marks were on his arms, usually on the top by the bicep,
sometimes by the wrist ... They would stay on his body, it was bruising."[47]
Cynthia reports that when she asked her son's teacher about these marks, the
teacher "would say that he had been screaming and kicking, so he needed to be
punished."[48]
In a separate incident when he was six, Cynthia's son was bruised in school;
her son is non-verbal and unable to tell her what happened: "I'm sure they hit
him. There was a handprint, a handprint on his back during the 2006-2007 school
year. On the middle of his back ... It was clearly an adult handprint, not a
child's handprint."[49]

Some students were injured when they were grabbed or beaten
by their caretakers. Anna M.'s son, who has an autistic spectrum disorder, was seven
years old when he was beaten, scratched, and bruised in school, sustaining
injuries to his arms, torso, and lip.[50]
Theresa E., the grandmother of a girl on the autism spectrum[51]
describes two incidents that happened in kindergarten:

Third week of school, she came home with bruises on her
arm. It was a handprint. You could see the finger marks, extended on her arm,
between the elbow and the wrist ... either the teacher grabbed her hard, or hit
her with excessive force.[52]

In the second incident, the five-year-old girl sustained
contusions on her neck:

She had bruises, a couple inches, from side-to-side, on the
front portion of her neck. To be honest with you, it looked like a belt. It was
maybe two-to-three inches from side to side. I thought, maybe she got tangled
in a swing. Jessie said, "no mommy." She said "the teacher got mad. I couldn't
breathe."[53]

Dragging, Throwing, or Pulling Children

Many families we interviewed reported that physical force
was used in order to drag or pull children to another part of the school. Some
children were thrown to the floor or into a wall by teachers or teachers'
aides. When used to discipline, these incidents also constitute corporal
punishment, which as the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child observes, can
involve "kicking, shaking, or throwing children."[54]

Brian, Karen W.'s son with autism, was dragged from under
his desk by an aide when he was 10 years old:

He was under the desk, crying ... He finally bolted up from
under his desk and grabbed the man [the aide]'s hand. He [my son] wasn't a
threat to him. But in their mind, they saw that as physical aggression toward a
staff. [Another staff member] helped [the aide] drag out Brian ... he came home
with bruises. Bruises to the back of his neck from being held down. This is the
day when we started saying, "you've got to make accommodations, you cannot do
this to him."[55]

Theresa E. had gone to pick up her granddaughter at kindergarten,
when she saw another student in her daughter's small special education class
thrown across the room: "Amanda, a non-verbal child, started rocking and
spinning at the same time. The TA [teacher's aide] walked over and grabbed her,
and threw her into the wall. She gave her no warning."[56]
Anna M.'s son, who has a developmental disorder, was seven years old when he
was thrown across his Florida classroom:

An ESC [Exceptional Students Center] coordinator ... says
she "gently placed him" on his "safe space" mat, but my son had a contusion on
his head. He says they threw him into a stack of chairs. They didn't call me.
They just sent him out like the end of a regular day. He had red marks across
his face when he came to the car. I asked him what was going on. He wouldn't
say, he was quiet. I gave him time to calm down. But another parent called me
at 6 [p.m.], and said, is he OK? So I asked him again, and he started
screaming. I checked his head, and he had a big bump on his temple, under his
hairline. So I took him to the emergency room, they noted contusions....[57]

Rose C.'s son, who has autism and cognitive delays, was 15
when he was dragged across campus and thrown onto a tile floor, and on another
day thrown into a stack of chairs. Rose obtained videotape of the first
incident and described it as follows:

[My son] is sitting with a female student ... My son gets
mad, he screams ... My son starts running away. Then a male staff member-we don't
know who he is-picks him up and throws him into the tile floor, face first.
They're all on him now, on the tile floor in the cafeteria. Eventually they ...
pick up my son by his limbs ... They took him to room 119, it's a meeting room ...
My son threw a pencil across the room and knocked over the table. The male staff
member picked him up, and put him in a chokehold. Other staff members come
running. Three or four of them tackle him, and he's thrown to the floor again.[58]

Children Bruised or Injured During Restraint

Schools throughout the United States use restraints[59]
in response to students with disabilities, and allegations of abusive
restraints have been raised across the nation.[60] The ACLU and Human
Rights Watch documented numerous cases in which students were bruised or more
seriously injured in the course of restraints or holds.

Educators may use force under limited circumstances to
ensure a safe environment for their students. Under international law, in "exceptional
circumstances ... dangerous behavior [may] justif[y] the use of reasonable
restraint," but that force must be the minimum amount necessary for the
shortest period of time, and must never be used to punish.[61]
Educators must be trained to respond to dangerous behavior, "both to minimize
the necessity to use restraint and to ensure that any methods used are safe and
proportionate to the situation and do not involve the deliberate infliction of
pain."[62]

Face-Down or Prone Restraint

Several families we interviewed reported that their children
were subjected to prone restraint, in which a child is pinned face-down to the
floor, often with his hands pulled behind his back. Prone restraint is "one of
the most lethal school practices":[63]
sudden fatal cardiac arrhythmia or respiratory arrest can occur through prone
restraint.[64]
Non-lethal consequences of prone restraint can include cerebral and cerebellar
oxygen deprivation, lacerations, abrasions, injury to muscles, contusions or
bruising, blunt trauma to the head, neck injury, dislocation of shoulder and
other joints, hyperextension of the arms, and decrease in circulation to the
extremities.[65]
The National Disability Rights Network has documented three cases in which
students died following prone restraint.[66]

Tom R.'s son weighed just 40 pounds when he was pinned to
the floor, face-down, by his assistant principal: "[he] had huge bruises across
his chest ... on his upper ribs, across both his arms, down both of his legs."[67]
Rose C. described her son's face-down restraint:

All different teachers come in, they hold him down. One of
the girls [women teachers], she's a heavy girl, she's on his back. He has a
sore neck, he can't breathe. He's about 15, he's the skinniest boy you've ever
seen. He's 5'7", about 125 pounds ... When he was released, the first thing my
son did is go for his neck [because it was hurt].[68]

Karen W.'s son, who has autism, was only able to describe
prone restraint years later: "Later, now, he's been able to tell me about face
down restraints. He showed me on the floor. One person on his back, one person
on his feet. If he would raise his head, they'd force it back down. I think
they were trying to break his spirit."[69]

Face-down restraint is extremely dangerous and never
appropriate.[70]
It does not meet international standards requiring the minimum use of force for
the shortest period of time, and it should be absolutely prohibited in schools.

Other Restraint

Many families we interviewed described other forms of
restraint used against their children, including "holds" or vertical
restraints, which can amount to corporal punishment when used with intent to
discipline and cause pain and discomfort. Families reported that their students
were bruised or even more severely injured in the course of restraints. Again,
international standards mandate that force can only be used to protect a child
or others, and then the force used must be to the minimum degree possible for
the shortest period of time. The restraints reported to us far exceed human
rights standards.

May R.'s daughter, who has bipolar and anxiety disorders,
was seven when "she was placed in a hold for 30-45 minutes [causing bruising
from shoulder to wrist, and broken blood vessels under her armpits]. The
teacher told me a new technique was used on her to place her in a hold that
would intentionally cause discomfort in order to deter future misbehavior."[71]The use of force with the intent to cause discomfort amounts to corporal
punishment, not permissible restraint.

Cynthia C.'s son developed chest pains following repeated "basket"
holds. The teacher repeatedly approached her son, English, from behind and
picked him up as if he were in a basket. Cynthia reported that "she [the
teacher] would say that he had been screaming and kicking, so he needed to be
punished."[72]
English's cardiologist directed that the basket holds be discontinued, as his "heart
muscle is at the upper limit of normal."[73]

V. Corporal Punishment by the Numbers

Data from the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department
of Education demonstrate that at least 41,972 students with disabilities were
subjected to corporal punishment at least once in the 2006-2007 school year,
the most recent year for which data exist.[74]Of
these, 39,093 students are defined as disabled under the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act,[75]
and the additional 2,879 students receive assistance under Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act.[76]
These numbers likely undercount the extent of violence against students with
disabilities, in part because schools are not required to report all forms of
violent discipline.

The total number of students, with and without disabilities,
who were subjected to corporal punishment in the 2006-2007 school year was
223,190.[77]
Students with disabilities, therefore, made up 18.8 percent of those who
received corporal punishment,[78]
even though they constitute just 13.7 percent of the nationwide student
population.[79]
This disparity suggests that the most vulnerable students are receiving
beatings at disproportionately high rates.

Number of Students Paddled in the 2006-2007 School Year, by State

Disproportionately High Rates of Corporal
Punishment among Students with Disabilities

Corporal punishment is legal under domestic law in 20
states, though in these states many individual school districts choose not to
use corporal punishment.[80]
In each of those states, corporal punishment of students with disabilities-regardless
of the type or degree of disability-is permitted. The vast majority of state
laws permitting paddling do not distinguish between students with disabilities
and students without disabilities,[81]
despite the fact that corporal punishment is prohibited in some states'
psychiatric institutions.[82]
The Kentucky statute permitting corporal punishment allows corporal punishment
of "mentally disabled persons."[83]
Texas prohibits certain types of confinement for students with disabilities,
but allows them to be paddled.[84]

Some states with legal corporal punishment use it more than
others; states that paddle all students at high rates also paddle students with
disabilities at high rates. For instance, Texas paddles the most students in
the nation, as well as the most students with disabilities: OCR data show that
10,222 students with disabilities were subjected to corporal punishment in the
2006-2007 school year, more than in any other state.[85]

Table 1: The Ten States with the Highest Rates of Corporal Punishment

State

Number of Students with Disabilities Receiving Corporal
Punishment

Number of All Students Receiving Corporal Punishment

Texas

10,222

49,157

Mississippi

5,831

38131

Alabama

5,111

33,716

Arkansas

4,082

22314

Georgia

3,903

18,249

Tennessee

3,618

14,868

Louisiana

2,463

11,080

Oklahoma

2,249

14,828

Florida

1,331

7,185

Missouri

1,191

5,129

Source: OCR Civil Rights Data Collection, 2006.

Students with disabilities are corporally punished at
disproportionately high rates in almost every state that uses paddling heavily.
In Tennessee, for example, students with disabilities are 2.1 times as likely
to be paddled as all students.[86]
Likewise, in Georgia, students with disabilities are 1.7 times as likely to be
paddled as all students.[87]
Of these states that use corporal punishment heavily, only Oklahoma paddles
students with and without disabilities at roughly the same rate.[88] While some students with disabilities may have particular behavioral
problems, this does not justify the disproportionate use of violence against
these students. As discussed below, there are more effective methods of
discipline that provide safe environments in which all students can learn.[89]

Table 2: Disproportionality for Students with Disabilities in the Ten
States with the Highest Rates of Corporal Punishment

State

Percentage of students in general population receiving
corporal punishment

Percentage of students with disabilities receiving
corporal punishment

Disproportionality

Mississippi

7.50

9.24

1.23

Arkansas

4.67

6.38

1.37

Alabama

4.54

5.69

1.25

Tennessee

1.47

3.08

2.10

Louisiana

1.69

2.40

1.42

Oklahoma

2.33

2.26

0.97

Georgia

1.12

1.91

1.71

Texas

1.08

1.85

1.71

Missouri

0.55

0.87

1.58

Kentucky

0.33

0.47

1.42

Florida

0.26

0.31

1.19

Source: OCR Civil Rights Data Collection, 2006.

Undercounting of
Data on Corporal Punishment

While these figures and rates
may already appear high, they likely undercount and therefore do not reflect
the full extent of corporal punishment against students with disabilities in US
public schools. First, the data record the number of students hit each year,
not the number of incidents.[90]
In other words, the data show that 41,972 individual students with disabilities
were beaten in the relevant school year, but do not show on how many occasions
corporal punishment occurred. Because many students likely were beaten more
than once in the school year-a reasonable assumption given the evidence
collected from our interviewees-the overall number of beatings administered
each year is undoubtedly higher.

The data also very likely undercount the number of students
paddled each year because some school districts fail to report all incidents to
the federal government. A parent and advocate for students with disabilities in
Mississippi told us "most schools don't know they have to report paddling."[91]
One superintendent of a major Mississippi school district told us the reported
numbers were low: "[W]e probably do it twice as much as reported.... [T]here is
no documentation you have to send to the central office to say that you did it."[92]

Furthermore, the OCR data likely do not incorporate two
major categories of violent discipline against special education students.
First, violent discipline which might not be considered "corporal punishment"
by the school district, yet nonetheless meets the definition of corporal
punishment under human rights law, would not be reported.[93]
Our interviews suggest that many incidents of corporal punishment outside of
paddling take place, yet are not reported.

Second, school districts in states without legal corporal
punishment may nonetheless use violent techniques against students with
disabilities;[94]
such instances are not reported to OCR.[95] For instance, in the
course of restraint in states throughout the US, students are subjected to
violent discipline that can amount to corporal punishment.[96]
Furthermore, there is no federal reporting requirement for the use of
restraint, and only two states (California and Connecticut) require annual
reporting on the use of restraints.[97]

Lack of Information on Violence against Students
with Disabilities

According to our interviewees, students with disabilities
are routinely and repeatedly subjected to physical force in schools. Yet
parents-who have particularly strong interests in knowing what happens to their
children-report that they were unable to get information on the forms of
punishment used against their children. If parents themselves are unable to
gather information, any more general data or systematic reporting is surely
lacking, suggesting chaotic, haphazard record-keeping at best.

Parents repeatedly reported that the school did not tell
them when force was used against their children. May R., the mother of a then seven-year-old
girl with bipolar disorder in Florida, noted that "most of the time, they didn't
call me if they restrained or secluded her."[98] Sarah P., who is
the grandmother of a then five-year-old boy with Asperger's Syndrome in Oklahoma, reported, "No-one called me, no-one told me anything. The principal really doesn't
want parents to know about anything."[99]

Parents are left with an incomplete picture of the abuse
against their children. A 2009 study on restraint and other abusive practices
used against students with disabilities found that 71 percent of the 185 sets
of parents interviewed did not consent to the use of these practices.[100]An Arkansas mother, Karen W., reported to us, "You've got to understand,
there's no law here that says they have to tell us when they do this. I'm just
telling you the ones [the incidents] I saw. [My son, who has autism] was
probably restrained 20 or 30 times during this period, from August to October."[101]
Anna M., the mother of a Florida boy with autism, struggled to find out what
happened to her son: "I had to hire attorneys, I still don't know everything.
No one will tell me everything."[102]

Children who have disabilities that hinder verbal
communication may often be unable to tell their parents what happened to them.
Sharon H., a Georgia mother of a now nine-year-old girl with autism, regrets
that she does not know the extent of her daughter's beatings at the age of five:
"I'm afraid I don't know [all that happened.] Brianna was afraid to talk. She
was grabbed, yanked, pulled. But I don't know all that happened. She wasn't
very verbal."[103]
Anna M., a Florida mother, observed that "sometimes it took my son [who has
autism] weeks to come out with things-I don't know if he couldn't process it,
or find words. He's much better now [since moving from the abusive
environment]."[104]

Some parents find out years later the extent of the abuse
against their children. Sharon H., the mother of the now nine-year-old girl
with autism, reported that her daughter has begun to tell her more about what
happened at school: "Brianna is still coming out with things. It took her a
whole year to tell me the other stuff."[105] Karen W., whose
son with autism was physically punished between the ages of 8 and 10, found out
more details now that he is 13 years old:

He wasn't very verbal back then ... It took him a long time
to tell me what happened. But I'm a lot more fortunate than some of these
parents. My son could at least tell me, he couldn't explain, but he could tell
me.[106]

VI. Behaviors Leading to Beatings

Students are beaten in schools for infractions ranging from
minor misbehavior like speaking out in class to major violations such as
fighting. While corporal punishment is never appropriate, it is particularly
illegitimate when used as a disproportionate, angry response to minor
infractions that might be expected from any child. Even in cases where students
commit serious infractions, corporal punishment is not an effective method of
redressing the problem.

Students with disabilities are also punished for behavior
that stems from their disability itself. Students with disabilities-like all
students-deserve tailored discipline programs that teach them appropriate
behaviors and allow them to thrive. When they are punished for behaviors
connected to their disabilities, they are subjected to particularly harsh
discipline and unfairly denied access to quality education.

Misbehaviors Leading to Corporal Punishment

Most instances of corporal punishment reported to the ACLU
and Human Rights Watch were for minor infractions, such as having a shirt
untucked, being tardy (late to class or to school), or talking in class or in
the hallway.[107]
A superintendent in a district that uses corporal punishment noted that the
practice is particularly egregious if used for minor misbehavior: "I hate to
think that a child gets three or five swats for being late to class, I hate to
think that a child gets three or five swats for running in the hall-those are
minor infractions."[108]

Students in the early grades receive corporal punishment for
behavior typical among young children. This is especially problematic for some
students with disabilities, who can have trouble learning appropriate social
behaviors.[109]
Cynthia C., the mother of a boy with congenital brain abnormalities and developmental
delays, noted that when he was six and seven, her son received corporal
punishment at his Georgia elementary school for "screaming and kicking."[110]
Young students with sickle cell anemia in Tennessee were paddled for forgetting
forms or avoiding classwork.[111]

Corporal Punishment for Serious Offenses, including
Violence

Some students we interviewed were subjected to corporal
punishment for serious infractions, including fighting.[112] A
serious disciplinary response is clearly appropriate in such circumstances, and
very limited force may be used solely to protect the child or others.[113]
Corporal punishment goes far beyond permissible force; it uses a violent
technique to respond to violent misbehavior, ultimately reinforcing rather than
changing the student's behavior. Research suggests that corporal punishment is
linked to increased rates of aggression in school in the months and years
following the punishment.[114]
The ACLU and Human Rights Watch found that students with disabilities were
among those beaten for violent misbehavior. One special education teacher in Mississippi observed, "I see these autistic children who get in fights and then get
paddled. So you're supposed to teach them not to hit by hitting them."[115]
Andrea N., the mother of a 10-year-old with ADHD, reports that her son was
paddled for fighting, in violation of her expressed wishes.[116]

Corporal punishment as a response to violence can be
particularly ineffective for certain students with disabilities, especially
where those students learn to model violent or self-protective behavior as a
consequence of being beaten themselves. Tom R. noted that his son, a Mississippi boy with obsessive compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder, does not see
corporal punishment as a deterrent: "With my son, it's not 'I did this, this is
my consequence so I better correct my behavior.' It's 'I did this and it's
wrong and now they hate me. Now they're going to beat me and I'm going to
protect myself.'"[117]Johnny McPhail, the father of a Mississippi girl with autism, felt
paddling was extremely detrimental: "An autistic child never forgets a
paddling. They have total recall, programming needs to be the same. If you hit
her, she'd be hitting, it's hard to talk her out of it."[118]

Punishment for Consequences of Disability

The ACLU and Human Rights Watch received numerous reports of
students who were punished for the consequences of their disability. Many of
the cases involved students with autism, who were physically punished for
exhibiting behaviors common to children on the autism spectrum. Some parents
reported that school staff did not take their children's conditions under
consideration when administering discipline. Students are being beaten for
behavior they simply cannot control, or cannot reasonably be expected to control,
a grossly disproportionate and fundamentally demeaning response to the child's
condition.

For instance, students with Tourette Syndrome, a condition
that causes involuntary vocal and physical tics,[119]
may be punished in part because of those tics. Anna M., whose son with autism
and Tourette Syndrome was repeatedly punished, observed that "[My son] fought
back, he had loud vocalizations, those were his tics. They kept restraining
him. They dragged him down the hallway."[120]Michelle
R. noted that her son's Tourette Syndrome induces physical tics:

One of his tics was balling up his fists ... that was seen
as aggression and he would get in trouble with it ... He would try to explain
that it was a tic, and he couldn't control it, but they see that as him escalating
it. So now they have him in restraints and then they're giving him sedatives
and calling for me to come pick him up. They had a closet and he would go in
there and that's where he was hit.[121]

Jennifer Parker, an advocate who works with more than 750
school-age sickle cell patients in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas through a hospital clinic, observed that many of her patients are paddled for
minor infractions directly related to their disability:[122]

Our kids [with sickle cell anemia] are at higher instances
of having to repeat grades, or have difficulty with language or processing
speed. A lot of our patients can't read, or can't read at grade level. With
processing speed, once a teacher gives a direction, the kid might need to hear
it multiple times or in different ways. The teacher might get angry when the
kid doesn't follow the instructions, and paddles them.[123]

Students were punished for behaviors related to obsessive
compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Tom R. reported
that his son with OCD "would erase through a paper and get in trouble for that.
It was a manifestation of his obsessive compulsive disorder, and they were
punishing him for it."[124]
One very young student in Texas, a three-year-old boy with ADHD attending a
public pre-kindergarten program, was beaten and bruised during paddling.[125]
He was paddled for taking off his shoes and for playing with an air
conditioner.[126]
The child sustained bruises to his hips that reached around to his navel.[127]

US federal law is not clear as to whether corporal
punishment administered for conduct resulting from a student's disabilities is
permissible.[128]
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973[129]
and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)[130]
prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities, including students;
discipline for conduct that is a manifestation of disability may rise to the
level of discrimination.[131]
However, the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Education, which
enforces the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA, has issued regulations which do
not expressly prohibit corporal punishment.[132]

Students with Conditions on the Autism Spectrum

According to our interviews, students with autism,
especially very young students, were physically punished for exhibiting
behaviors commonly manifested by children on the autism spectrum. Students with
autism often have difficulty with "normal" school behavior or socialization, as
"[t]he regression, or failure to progress, affects language, play, and social
interaction and occasionally other skills."[133] Common behaviors
stemming from the condition may include physical and verbal aggression,
repetitive talking on a favorite theme, stubborn resistance, and the constant
asking of the same questions.[134]
The Committee on Educational Interventions for Children With Autism of the
National Research Council notes that "[s]ocial dysfunction is perhaps the most
central defining feature of autism and related conditions, so it is critical
that the effects of a child's social disability on behavior be considered."[135]

Despite this medical and scientific evidence, the ACLU and
Human Rights Watch received numerous reports of children with autism who were
punished because of their behavior. Sharon H., the mother of a girl with autism
in Georgia, described her daughter's experience: "One time, she was just
sitting, rocking side-by-side in the gym. That's what autistic kids do. She was
five at the time. The fourth-grade teacher grabbed her and dragged her across
the floor."[136]
Another kindergarten girl with autism in Georgia was thrown into a wall after
she started rocking and spinning at the same time.[137]

An Oklahoma boy with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of
high-functioning autism, was paddled when he was five years old. His
grandmother observed that the punishment was meted out as a direct result of
her grandson exhibiting behavior normal for his condition:

Kids on the autism spectrum are very sensitive to noise and
external stimulation. He was spinning, turning around in the middle of the
floor with his arms out. A little girl walked into his hands. The principal
said he'd hit her, and spanked him for it.[138]

When Karen W. went to collect her son Brian-a boy with
autism-from his first day at a new school in Arkansas, she found him outside
screaming, being held down by two staff members, with injuries including
scratches and a split lip. Brian, who was eight years old at the time, had been
restrained following minor misbehaviors associated with his condition: "the school said
he wouldn't keep his shoes on, wanted to play outside, wouldn't stay where he
was supposed to stay. This is a child with autism, completely outside of his
normal routine."[139]

Parents reported that their students' conditions were not
taken into account when educators meted out discipline, despite the fact that
those disabilities were routinely discussed with the schools in question. May
R., whose daughter with autism was injured during corporal punishment, noted
that her teachers "didn't look at her disability, they looked at her behavior."[140]
Anna M., whose son with autism was physically punished repeatedly when he was
seven years old, noted, "The teacher felt he was doing some stuff on purpose.
If you met him, you wouldn't know he was autistic straight away. People thought
we were making an excuse for him."[141]

Educators, who face the difficult task of maintaining order
in the classroom, may resort to corporal punishment because it is quick to
administer, or because the school lacks resources and training for alternative
methods of discipline. One teacher pointed out that corporal punishment can be
considered "cost-effective. It's free, basically. You don't have to be
organized. All you need is a paddle."[142] Logistical or
financial obstacles may prevent teachers from using other methods of
discipline. One 18-year-old student who was critical of the use of corporal
punishment in his rural school district stated that "we couldn't have after
school detention. There was no busing. Kids who got detention would have to
find another way home."[143]
Yet despite the "convenience" of corporal punishment, teachers we interviewed
noted that it was ineffective. As a middle school teacher stated: "the
immediate impact is to get that student to stop that behavior, but there is no
guarantee that it [won't] continue."[144]

Educators may use corporal punishment against students with
disabilities in part because they have little to no understanding of the
consequences of those disabilities.[145]
Parents emphasized that educators lacked the training needed to understand
students' disabilities. For instance, Tom R., a Mississippi father of a boy
with disabilities, noted that "there's a total lack of regulation regarding
training, and a lack of connection."[146] Jennifer Parker,
an advocate who works with students with disabilities, found that training can
help: "We do some educational outreach. We provide the school with brochures,
and with documents from [the hospital], medical records, clinic notes, etc. ...
We're exchanging a lot of information between school districts and the
hospital. I think this helps teachers understand."[147]

VII. Impact of Corporal Punishment

Corporal punishment harms all children, damaging their education and making it
harder for them to thrive. Corporal punishment causes immediate pain and can
result in lasting physical injury and ongoing mental trauma. It humiliates and
degrades students, and may leave them depressed or withdrawn. Corporal
punishment teaches students that violence is acceptable: it can make students
aggressive, angry, and more likely to lash out in school. Students can become
less engaged in school, less motivated to succeed, and may become more likely
to drop out. Students with disabilities, who are already marginalized in
academic settings, may find that corporal punishment establishes additional
barriers to inclusive education.

For many students with disabilities whose stories are
documented in this report, physical punishment made their medical situation
worse, for instance by exacerbating conditions such as autism, and triggering
pain crises in sickle cell patients. The fact that corporal punishment can
exacerbate students' disabilities further accentuates the inappropriate and
abusive nature of the punishment.

Lasting Injuries and Barriers to Education

Many victims of corporal punishment in schools sustain
serious injuries. The Society for Adolescent Medicine notes that injuries can
include including severe muscle injury, extensive bruising, and whiplash
damage.[148]
A middle school student in rural Mississippi was severely bruised when paddling
escalated. His mother found his buttocks were black from bruising.[149]
It took more than a week for the bruises to heal, and during this period "he
couldn't sit down."[150]
A mother in Texas had a similar experience:

When I picked him up that afternoon, he was just kind of
quiet. And then later I took a look. They were deep bruises. Not marks. They
measured three inches by four inches. In the center of the bruises it was kind
of clear. They ended up turning real dark. This wasn't just a little red mark,
this was almost black. I ended up bringing him to the hospital, to the ER and
everything.[151]

May R.'s seven-year-old daughter was badly bruised during
restraint: "She came home with bruises from her shoulders to her wrists ... I
called the school, what happened, where's the note? That's when the teacher
told me about her armpits. I hadn't even realized that her armpits were bruised
before then."[152]
Rose C.'s son was injured when he was thrown into a tile floor and a stack of
chairs: "the bridge of his nose was cut, and he had bruises on his forehead."[153]
Anna M.'s son was seven years old when he was punished in school:

I'm in the front office ... They bring [my son] into the
room. His nose is beet red. He lifts up his shirt sleeve, I get a glimpse of
scratches all up his arm. I got overwhelmed, I couldn't focus ... I wanted to
get my son to the doctor. I get him home and I take off his clothes. He was
marked, top of his arms, under his arms, down his torso. He had a busted lip,
which I hadn't noticed at first. He said, "they made me wash the blood off
before I saw you."[154]

Depression and Anger

Corporal punishment is humiliating and degrading, may make
students angry and ready to lash out at their peers or at educators, and may
make them less inclined to engage in learning.[155]
According to the Society for Adolescent Medicine, victims of corporal
punishment may endure psychological harm, including difficulty sleeping,
suicidal thoughts, anxiety, increased anger, feelings of resentment, and outbursts of aggression.[156]
The American Academy of Pediatrics, in taking a position against corporal
punishment, observes that "corporal punishment may adversely affect a student's
self-image and school achievement and that it may contribute to disruptive and
violent behavior."[157]

Michelle R., a special education teacher in Mississippi, notes that one of her students fell apart when he was paddled: "He started
crying and this is a kid you just wouldn't imagine being that way ... It was
actually an adverse reaction. He was just crying and just broke down, kind of a
helplessness, 'I don't know what to do.'"[158] Anna M., the
mother of a boy with autism in Florida, observed, "He's an avoider by nature,
before he was never aggressive. Now, he struggles with anger; right after the
incidents he'd have anger explosions."[159]

Academic Disengagement and Drop-Out

Students with disabilities, who already face barriers to
education, can be further excluded from the educational process through the use
of physical punishment.[160]
The Society for Adolescent Medicine notes that corporal punishment is linked to
a tendency for school avoidance and school drop-out.[161]
According to Dr. Daniel F. Whiteside, assistant surgeon general under President
Ronald Reagan, "corporal punishment of children actually interferes with the
process of learning and with their optimal development as socially responsible
adults."[162]
A statistical study of public education in Alabama found a correlation between
corporal punishment and drop-out rates.[163]

Students in schools with corporal punishment are constantly
aware of the possibility of being beaten, a threat that discourages an open,
trusting relationship between students and educators. A teacher in Louisiana noted that her elementary school students constantly heard paddling: "we'd be in
the middle of math class and we'd hear a crack."[164]
An 18-year-old remembered high school paddlings: "I didn't see it but I could
hear it. Licks would be so loud and hard you could hear it through the walls.
You could hear the moans and yelling through the walls."[165]
One fifth-grade boy in special education classes recalled that his principal
threatened him: "[he] told me that 'if I could paddle you I would beat you
black and blue.'"[166]

This violent, threatening environment can be particularly
corrosive for some students with disabilities. Jennifer Parker, an advocate for
students with sickle cell anemia[167]
in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee, commented that the violent atmosphere
can be harmful to her students: "If they're in a school where the atmosphere is
constant corporal punishment, you can see an indirect stress effect that causes
pain crises, even if that child isn't touched."[168]

Students with disabilities, who already face barriers to
education, may disengage from school when faced with a violent environment.
Sarah P. reported that her grandson with Asperger's Syndrome was traumatized by
the paddling that took place at his elementary school: "It made him much more
introverted. He very much didn't want to go to school ... No one's supposed to
go to school to be tortured, school is supposed to be fun."[169]
Rose C.'s then 15-year-old son, who has autism, "started getting agitated, kept
saying, 'no school, no school.' I assumed that he was just a teenager, that he
didn't like school ... But he was throwing fits because he was getting hurt."[170]

Aggravation of Condition

For some students with disabilities, physical punishment can
aggravate their medical conditions.[171]
Furthermore, corporal punishment can cause some children to regress in
developmental terms, particularly for children on the autism spectrum. Corporal
punishment, which is never appropriate for any child, is particularly abusive
for these children.

Students with sickle cell anemia, for example, may be
particularly affected by paddling. Sickle cell anemia is a condition that is
characterized by "unpredictable episodes of severe and sometimes excruciating
pain"[172]
that can affect the bones, lungs, abdomen, and joints.[173]
Jennifer Parker, the advocate who works with more than 750 school-age sickle
cell patients in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas through a hospital
clinic, described how physical punishment can affect her patients:

Any kind of mental or physical stress can be a pain trigger
for these students, for a pain crisis. Not only do I believe that [paddling]
makes our kids' behavior worse, it also makes them medically more fragile. We
give our kids pain rating scales. They range from mild to moderate to severe
(moderate means they stay home from school, severe means they go to hospital).
If they're paddled, it's an immediate trigger for a possible moderate to severe
pain crisis ... we've had children end up in the hospital, later that day or
the next day, depending on when the paddling occurred. The parents tend to be
good about following that. Pain episodes can also be really random. We can't
say with certainty, but we think it's so often about paddling.[174]

A student with serious congenital brain abnormalities and
developmental disabilities was also particularly affected by physical
punishment. English, a boy in Georgia, was physically punished on numerous
occasions during elementary school, including by excessive force used during "basket"
holds. His mother described how he regressed after the trauma:

At home ... I would stand behind him [like the teacher had
during the basket holds]. He would flinch, and holler, and say no. He was
afraid, he was jumping. He had nightmares. Even others, just trying to hug him,
he wasn't able to tolerate it, it was overwhelming ... He learned that trauma
from the basket holds. He didn't want anyone to touch him ... He was
regressing. He started to need pull-ups again, whereas [before] he was OK, not
needing pull-ups.[175]

Students with Conditions on the Autism Spectrum

Physical punishment can be especially traumatic for students
on the autism spectrum. All children on the autistic spectrum demonstrate some
degree of qualitative impairment of communication and reciprocal social
interaction.[176]
Parents we spoke with felt physical trauma caused their children to regress
developmentally.

Among the families we interviewed, several students on the
autism spectrum who received corporal punishment in the early grades regressed
in toilet training. Theresa E.'s granddaughter with autism was physically
punished in kindergarten: "In the second week, I'd go to school, she'd be
soaking, she'd have peed herself over and over ... by the third week, we'd see
feces in her clothes ... and Jessie had been potty trained since she was two."[177]
Sharon H., the mother of a girl with autism who was five years old when she was
physically punished, had a similar experience: "She was fully potty trained but
all that went away. Nighttime bedwetting started. And during the day. She
soiled herself."[178]

Some parents observed that their children with autism
exhibited self-injurious behavior after single or repeated episodes of corporal
punishment, whereas previously these children had not injured themselves.[179]
As Theresa E. noted, "after two months in the school, [my granddaughter's]
behavior had changed ... she'd bite herself, teeth marks on her arms ... she'd
sit and bang her head up against the wall, 'til she had bruises on her
forehead."[180]
Jacquelyn K. commented, "From that day on [after paddling], it was harder to
deal with anything that upset [my grandson]. He would scream, cry, throw
things, hit himself upside the head. You had to always watch him, he couldn't
be alone ... Before this he hadn't hit himself ever."[181]

Many parents noted that their children with autism became
more fearful after receiving corporal punishment, especially around their schools.
Anna M.'s seven-year-old son changed after he was restrained and beaten: "He
would never leave my side. He had major nightmares, screaming. He wouldn't go
to Walmart, anywhere. He'd say 'we're going to run into him [the person who
administered physical punishment].'"[182]
Jacquelyn K. told us that her grandson became terrified of school: "He was
scared of going over there, scared it would happen again. When a child with
autism has something like that happen, they don't forget it. It's always fresh
in their minds."[183]

Some students with autism became more aggressive following
episodes of physical punishment. Jacquelyn K. commented:

When he started the school he didn't have a discipline
problem. It's what they did to him that escalated his symptoms. He's more
aggressive now, it's on a higher level. Everything was escalated ... When you
have a child with autism go through a traumatic experience, it takes it to
another level ... He was a nice quiet, calm boy ... now he has these meltdowns
all the time. He can't focus, he cries.[184]

VIII. Parents' Inability to Protect Children

According to our interviews, parents of students with
disabilities faced numerous challenges when trying to protect their children
from violent school discipline. Often, parents did not know-or still do not
know now-the full extent of the violence used against their children because
the school did not disclose or because the child was unable to tell. Parents we
interviewed repeatedly struggled with their school districts while trying to obtain
appropriate services for their children. Corporal punishment led to
deterioration in family life, as parents were forced to withdraw children from
school, resort to homeschooling, and give up jobs. Parents felt these moves
were necessary in order to secure their child's physical safety, yet took a
high toll on the family.

Lack of Information

Parents were frequently unaware that their child received
physical punishment in school because the school did not tell them or their
child was unable to describe the incidents. May R., the mother of a Florida
girl with bipolar disorder who was repeatedly injured at school, commented, "Most
of the time, they didn't call me if they restrained her ... We had requested,
many, many times, but we never got that information [on how many times she was
restrained]."[185]

Students with severe disabilities may have trouble
communicating to their parents the traumatic events at school. Brianna, a
five-year-old with autism in Georgia, was repeatedly abused. Her mother, Sharon
H., noted, "She was grabbed, yanked, pulled. But I don't know all that
happened. She wasn't very verbal."[186]
Rose C. added:

My son couldn't explain this. He couldn't explain what had
happened to me. They [the school staff] had been picking him up, throwing him
into the tile floor like a wrestler. They'd drag him, pick him up by all four
limbs. You can see [on security video tape] where they're dragging him on the
ground. They're carrying him like a wild animal. They grabbed him, they throw
him like a bag of potatoes ... They put him in a choke hold ... I asked him,
what was wrong. He can't explain.[187]

Struggles with the School System

Many families we interviewed reported that they had trouble
working with school systems to secure their child's safety. Deena S., a Texas mother, described her experience:

We went to the superintendent first. We asked him, "what
was his definition of corporal punishment-at what point does it cross the line?"
He looked at us, said "when we start getting into bruising and blistering." We
looked at him, said, "we're already at that point." But he didn't do anything.
Just acted like it was no big deal.[188]

Many parents described prolonged struggles with their school
districts. Karen W. fought repeatedly for her son: "We went to war, we really
did. [After he was bruised] I demanded a new IEP [individual education program]
... I requested a qualified teacher, I requested training for the staff in
autism."[189]
Tom R.'s son with Tourette Syndrome and bipolar disorder was repeatedly injured
in school. Tom commented, "It was a seven year fight to get him in that
situation where he can succeed."[190]

Parents reported that they needed considerable legal
knowledge to fight for their children. Karen W. regretted the lack of
information she had when her child was first restrained: "My ignorance of what the
schools could do ... you don't have any choice if you don't know what the law
is. There are so many things that parents can do if they have parent training
in IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] and they know."[191]
Michelle R. added, "Being a special education teacher, I know what they can and
cannot do. I told the attorneys and everyone else that I can't imagine being a
parent who does not know their rights."[192]

Some parents were able to find help through support groups
or advocacy centers. As Anna M., a Florida mother of a boy with autism, noted, "I
had to hire attorneys ... The school never told me my options ... I found
support groups, that was such a blessing. I try to help people so they don't have
to go through what I did. I learned the hard way."[193]
Rose C. agreed: "The advocacy center helped me collect the information. If I
hadn't had that help, nothing would have been done."[194]

Impact on Family Life

Many parents who saw their children physically punished felt
they had to withdraw their children from school to protect their safety. Yet
this choice can come with considerable hardship, including lack of educational
services for the child, job loss for a parent, and charges of truancy. Theresa
E. described the dilemma she and her husband faced after their granddaughter
was physically punished: "We thought she needed school for socialization. I
didn't think I could home school her. Jessie's autistic. I know how to work
with her. I'm not sure I can educate her."[195] Anna M. faced a
similar dilemma when her son with autism was physically punished as a seven-year-old.
She ultimately found a new placement for her son:

I wouldn't let him go to school. I was afraid for his life,
to be honest. He was 52 pounds, or maybe even less, at this point ... I wanted
to keep him home, but that's not good for him either. He needed to be in
school. At his new school, he's so comfortable. He's a social butterfly.[196]

Some parents we interviewed were forced to resort to homeschooling
their children. As Brian W., the father of a boy with autism in Arkansas, said, "once [my son] was injured, we pulled him out of school and started
educating him ourselves."[197]
Deena S. followed the same course after her teenage son was paddled and bruised
in Texas: "we did what we could at home with him, but he was already behind."[198]

In order to home school their children, several parents we
interviewed had to stop working. Jacquelyn K.'s grandson was paddled at six
years old. His anxiety disorder and autism worsened, and she withdrew him from
school: "What kills me, I have another child here at home. I can't work. I've
tried to locate something I can do at home. But I don't have a choice....
Before he was sick, I worked every day."[199] May R. withdrew
her daughter from her Florida elementary school after she was severely bruised,
and stopped working: "I can't even get a job. She was on hospital/homebound. I
had to keep her safe. She had taken a huge downturn."[200]

Several families were accused of truancy or feared those
accusations once they withdrew their children from school.[201]
Cynthia C. noted, "Retaliation is horrible in this county [in Georgia]. If I kept [my son] out, they'd write me up for truancy."[202]
Jacquelyn K. described her situation in Mississippi:

When [my grandson] was seven, they sent truant officers.
They said I'd go to jail if I didn't send him back to school. But they didn't
have anyone qualified to teach him ... if I felt he would have been safe in
school, he would have been there. I'm sure they would have paddled him again. I
don't trust them ... Then they turned around and tried to point the finger at
me, saying I was interfering with his education.[203]

Guilt and Resilience

Many parents we interviewed expressed guilt, feeling they
had failed to protect their children from harm. Jacquelyn K. commented, "I can
imagine my little child was just screaming and hollering, and I wasn't there to
help him."[204]Karen W., whose son with autism was abused in school, noted, "I was
ignorant. I am a registered nurse, but I was still stupid ... Oh, the guilt I
live with ... I blame myself for my ignorance."[205] Rose
C.'s son was unable to tell her that he was repeatedly punished in school, but
she learned of some of the abuse after watching a security video. She said,

I don't trust my own eyes anymore, I didn't see the abuse ...
I trusted the school, I trusted them to do the right thing. I didn't see that
they would hurt him, I didn't believe it. But eventually I saw the video ...
All this abuse happened on my watch. It never should have happened. I feel so
guilty. I cannot afford to miss this again, I can't trust anyone again.[206]

Some parents started to fight back, organizing or joining
support groups, and conducting legal research. Anna M. observed, "I trusted them
[the school staff], I didn't even know they were allowed to put their hands on
your kid. I feel so stupid. I started doing some legal research ... It's a very
scary word, special ed. A lot of things parents just don't know. You just
blindly trust. It was a very bad experience-and having to find out there's
hundreds of us."[207]
Karen W. observed, "If parents knew that schools do this, the kids wouldn't be
hurt. You try to tell them, you all have rights. That's why we started this
support system. That's when [the abuse against my son] stopped."[208]

IX. Best Practices: Effective Discipline for
Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities-like all students-need safe,
secure school environments in which they can effectively learn. Corporal
punishment cannot function as part of that environment: it causes pain, injury,
and degradation of the student's medical condition, and it is ineffective. Best
practices for school discipline for students with disabilities incorporate many
of the same techniques as best practices for students without disabilities.[209]
Positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) are proven to allow
educators to respond to each child, teaching them why what they did was wrong
and how they can correct their behavior.

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports

Nationwide, educators are moving toward positive behavioral
interventions and supports for students with and without disabilities as a way
of creating effective school cultures.[210] These practices
respond to the underlying reasons for the child's misbehavior, and are
consistent with the school's mission of education.[211]
Within this structured environment, children can change their behavior and
return to class ready to learn.[212]

Students with disabilities can benefit from PBIS and other
best practices.[213]
As reviewed in a recent report by the Congressional Research Service, the IDEA
provides that when the behavior of a child with a disability impedes the child's
learning or the learning of others, the IEP team must consider "the use of
positive behavioral interventions and supports, and other strategies, to
address that behavior."[214]
Positive behavior systems create environments where rules and expectations are
clear and consistent, are understood and accepted by everyone in the school, and
are reliably enforced.[215]

In 46 states around the US, there are schools currently
using the school-wide positive behavioral support model, implementing three
levels of positive behavior supports:[216]

Universal: rules, routines, and physical arrangements for
all students developed to prevent initial problem behavior;

Secondary: small group or individual responses for
students at risk of problem behaviors, such as mentoring programs and
staff support teams for students; and

Tertiary: more intensive interventions tailored to meet
the specific needs of individual students with patterns of problem
behaviors.

The PBS approach has been proven to be a highly effective
method to reduce problem behaviors and disciplinary referrals.[217]
The Centennial School of Lehigh University, which provides educational services
for children classified under the IDEA as emotionally disturbed or autistic,
implemented PBS and went from having over 1,000 restraint incidents per year to
having zero restraint incidents and zero "seclusionary time-outs."[218]
Positive behavior systems can also improve academic achievement and teacher job
satisfaction. For instance, use of a PBS framework has been correlated with
improvements in both math and reading performance.[219]
Formal evaluations of PBS have found increased satisfaction among teachers;
they feel more effective in their teaching and management of student behavior.[220]

The National Disability Rights Network suggests best
practices for implementing PBS and reducing the use of restraints and seclusions
in schools.[221]
These include: first, leadership and commitment at the highest administrative
levels to establishing and actively supporting clear policies with respect to
the PBS framework. Second, continuous training of staff, so that all staff
working with students with emotional or behavioral disorders are trained in
behavioral management that emphasizes crisis prevention and de-escalation.
Third, the development of individualized, comprehensive, and relevant behavior
intervention plans for individual students, relying on involvement of parents.
The goal of PBS and interventions is more than control of problem behavior; it
also includes the enhancement of each student's living and learning choices.[222]

Successful Experiences with School Discipline

Many of our interviewees felt that corporal punishment was
deeply inappropriate for children with disabilities, and that alternatives
exist that allow children to thrive. For instance, one special education
teacher in Mississippi described her success with positive, individually
tailored discipline responses:

If one of my students gets in trouble in the classroom,
typically the teachers send them to me rather than send them to the office [to
be paddled]. Typically I let them calm down and send them back to class. If
that doesn't happen or it gets to the point where it escalates and it needs to
involve an administrator then 99 percent of the time I would say I am in there
with the administrator helping him make a decision as to what happens to the
student ... We might look at schedule changes, or sitting down with the teacher
and the student.... We try a wide variety. Each kid is different.[223]

A teacher in another Mississippi district agreed that
positive, individualized alternatives helped in her classroom:

There was a social worker as well, someone we could turn to
as an intermediary before sending them to the office, especially if you knew
corporal punishment was going to be used there. She would talk to them about
the way they were behaving, and set up incentives and goals to see if they
could change their behavior. This was a successful way to intervene.[224]

Several parents we interviewed reported that their students,
who had been corporally punished previously, responded much better when the
school reacted to the child's individual needs. Sharon H.'s elementary-school
aged daughter thrived when removed from an abusive environment: "The [new]
school district is working with me as a parent to get Brianna what she needs.
She has a calming down area, for instance."[225] Rose C., the
mother of a boy with autism who was repeatedly beaten, reported that her son
responded better to positive behavior interventions at a new school: "the
para-professionals redirected him by speaking to him. This de-escalated him.
And that made it better, then it was fine ... He gets consistency."[226]

Some parents emphasized the need for training of staff
members regarding students' disabilities. May R. spoke of harsh restraints used
against her nine-year-old daughter with bipolar disorder: "It's inappropriate,
the techniques, the length of time. It could have been avoided by redirection.
They didn't have the support, the knowledge, the training, the staff to deal
with severely disabled kids."[227]
Karen W., the mother of an Arkansas boy with autism, commented, "I begged them
to get training. I tried to show them the things that the OT [occupational
therapist] had taught me, to get him to calm down ... not one person in that
whole building had one day's training in autism."[228]

Ultimately, some parents reported happily that their
children were thriving in settings with positive behavior systems. Karen W.
said of her son, "He's now on the honor roll, straight A student, in a
mainstream school. This is remarkable. A year ago or so, they were saying he
could never, ever go back to public school."[229] Rose C.'s son now
attends a different public school in Florida with more support for students
with disabilities: "It's like a therapy for him. He's much less aggressive.
They're all around an oval table, they're all interacting. They're constantly
giving instructions as a group. He's thrived. He's doing very well."[230]

X. International Human Rights Law Protecting
Students with Disabilities

Corporal punishment violates human rights to freedom from
cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment, and freedom from
physical violence. In many instances, it violates the prohibition on
discrimination and impinges on children's right to education. Corporal
punishment is also contrary to respect for human dignity, a deep-seated guiding
principle of human rights law enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Numerous human rights treaty bodies, including the United Nations Human
Rights Committee, the UN Committee against Torture, and the UN Committee on the
Rights of the Child have spoken out against corporal punishment in schools.[231]

Corporal punishment against students with disabilities
violates additional rights to education and non-discrimination, in addition to
the general principles articulated above. The US has recently signed the UN
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and is therefore
obliged to adhere to the object and purpose of the treaty.[232] The
CRPD, which entered into force in May 2008, provides for the right to an
inclusive education, protects people with disabilities from violence and abuse,
and prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. In signing the CRPD,
President Obama stated that the treaty "reaffirms the inherent dignity and
worth and independence of all persons with disabilities[.]"[233]
Corporal punishment, when applied to students with disabilities, violates these
rights and denies these students the education to which they are entitled.

International Human Rights Law

With a handful of exceptions, children have the same human
rights as adults. In addition, "the child, by reason of his physical and mental
immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal
protection," and governments and governmental institutions such as schools have
additional responsibilities to protect children.[234]

Children with disabilities are doubly vulnerable, and thus
entitled to special care.[235]
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recognized that children with
disabilities are more vulnerable to violence, abuse, and neglect in all
settings, including schools.[236]
Article 7 of the CRPD mandates that states party are to take all necessary
measures to ensure children with disabilities' full enjoyment "of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis with other children."[237]

Freedom from Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment

Children with disabilities are protected from corporal
punishment by numerous provisions prohibiting cruel, inhuman, and degrading
treatment. For instance, article 15 of the UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities requires states party to take "all
effective legislative, administrative, judicial, or other measures" to protect
persons with disabilities from being subjected to such treatment.[238]The United States has signed and ratified the Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention
against Torture) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR). Each of these treaties prohibits the use of cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment or punishment.[239]

International human rights bodies have repeatedly emphasized
that corporal punishment is incompatible with these provisions. For instance,
the Human Rights Committee (HRC), which offers the authoritative interpretation
of the ICCPR, emphasizes that the prohibition on the use of cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment or punishment "must extend to corporal punishment,
including excessive chastisement ordered ... as an educative or disciplinary
measure."[240]
Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment, observes:

Since corporal punishment in all its forms ... whether
imposed by State authorities or by private actors, including schools and
parents, has been qualified by all relevant intergovernmental human rights
monitoring bodies as cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, it follows that,
under present international law, corporal punishment can no longer be
justified, not even under the most exceptional situations.[241]

The Right to Freedom from Physical Violence

Various international instruments protect the child's right
to be free from any form of physical violence.[242]
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the world's most universally
ratified human rights treaty, recognizes the child's right to be free from any
form of physical or mental violence. Article 16 of the CRPD provides for the right of children with disabilities to be free from violence and
abuse;[243] this article extends the protections granted by the CRC.

The United States is a signatory to the CRC and the treaty's
provisions should be treated as authoritative guidance (as discussed below).
Article 19 states:

States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative,
administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all
forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent
treatment, maltreatment or exploitation[.][244]

In 2006 the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the
international body charged with monitoring compliance with the CRC, issued
General Comment No. 8, discussing the right of the child to protection from
corporal punishment. The committee found that article 19 "does not leave room
for any level of legalized violence against children," and that "[c]orporal
punishment and other cruel or degrading forms of punishment are forms of
violence and States must take all appropriate legislative, administrative,
social and educational measures to eliminate them."[245]

The Right to an Inclusive Education

Children with disabilities have the right to an inclusive
education-based on the principle that all children should learn together,
wherever possible, regardless of difference.[246] The CRPD requires
states to ensure that "[p]ersons with disabilities can access an inclusive,
quality and free primary and secondary education on an equal basis with others
in the communities in which they live."[247] As discussed by
Vernor Munoz, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education,
schools with an inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating
discrimination, and are thus essential to securing the full right to education
for children with disabilities.[248]
US law mirrors this commitment, as President Obama noted when speaking of the
Americans with Disabilities Act, an historic piece of legislation that
attempted to ensure that "children with disabilities were no longer excluded ...
and then no longer denied the opportunity to learn the same skills in the same
classroom as other children."[249]

Corporal punishment undermines the right to education for
all children,[250]
including children with disabilities. The Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, the body charged with overseeing the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), states in General Comment No. 13
(on the right to education) that "corporal punishment is inconsistent with the
fundamental guiding principle of international human rights law enshrined in
the Preambles to the Universal Declaration and both Covenants: the dignity of
the individual."[251]

The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the "right
of the disabled child to special care" which should "ensure that the disabled
child has effective access to and receives education ... in a manner conducive
to the child's achieving the fullest possible social integration and individual
development."[252]
Corporal punishment excludes children with disabilities, especially when used
at disproportionate rates, creating barriers to their full integration into the
classroom.

Non-Discrimination and Equality

The use of corporal punishment in US public schools can also
violate children's rights to non-discrimination, a fundamental principle of
human rights law. The CRPD mandates that states party "undertake to ensure and
promote the full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for
all persons with disabilities without discrimination of any kind on the basis
of disability."[253]
The CRC, the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in
existence, also expressly prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability.[254]
Fundamental rights protecting children from corporal punishment apply with
equal force to protect the rights of children with disabilities as well as
those of children without disabilities. Yet as a consequence of seeking public
education, students with disabilities find their rights to security of person
violated at disproportionate rates.

Parents' Rights

Parents have "the prior right
to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children."[255]
Furthermore, as guardians of their children, they must be able to uphold and
defend their children's rights. The preamble of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child affirms that precisely because of their "physical and mental
immaturity," children need "special safeguards and care, including appropriate
legal protection."[256]Children cannot defend their rights on their own; parents have a duty to
aid them in exercising those rights.[257] Parents of students
with disabilities-who are doubly vulnerable and entitled to special care-must
be given the tools with which to protect their children's rights.

The United States and International Human
Rights Law

The United States is obliged to follow the international
norms articulated above.[258]
For instance, the United States is party to the ICCPR and the Convention
against Torture. US constitutional law requires both individual states and the
federal government to uphold human rights treaties made under the authority of
the United States. The US Constitution states:

[A]ll treaties made, or which shall be made, under the
authority of the United States shall be the Supreme Law of the Land; and the
Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or
Law of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.[259]

Upholding this constitutional principle, the US Supreme
Court has stated, "[I]nternational law is part of our law, and must be
ascertained and administered by the courts of justice of the appropriate
jurisdiction[.]"[260]

Treaties of the United States-including human rights
treaties-are binding on states independent of the will and power of state
legislatures.[261]
While the United States is a federal system in which considerable power over
education rests with state and local officials, the federal government has
obligations and authority to secure compliance with human rights laws among its
constituent states.[262]
Not only should state officials adhere to the prohibition on corporal
punishment, but the federal government should support those states that
eliminate the practice, thus bringing their laws and policies into compliance
with human rights law.

As well as upholding its obligations under the ICCPR and the
Convention against Torture, the United States must adhere to standards
articulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The CRC is nearly universally
accepted: as of 2005, 192 countries were party to it. Singapore is the only party that has issued a declaration on the use of corporal punishment in the
context of its obligations under the CRC.[263] The United States and Somalia are the only two countries in the world that have failed to ratify the
CRC, although both have signed it.[264]
As a signatory to both the CRC and the CRPD, the United States must not take
actions that would defeat either treaty's object and purpose.[265]
In fact, the Supreme Court has explicitly acknowledged the CRC's authority as
an expression of "the overwhelming weight of international opinion" in
interpreting domestic legal standards.[266]

US Law Permitting Corporal Punishment

Despite the federal government's obligations to secure
compliance with binding human rights norms among the states, federal law fails
to live up to the international standards protecting children from corporal
punishment.[267]
In the 1977 case, Ingraham v. Wright, the US Supreme Court ruled that
routine corporal punishment is not considered cruel and unusual punishment, and
does not per se violate procedural due process.[268]
Since then, however, a majority of the states have enacted legislation
outlawing the use of corporal punishment in public schools.[269]
The federal standards that continue to permit corporal punishment were
established decades ago; it is incumbent on the US government to bring its law
into line with international commitments.

In Ingraham the Supreme Court held that the cruel and
unusual punishments clause of the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution does
not apply to disciplinary corporal punishment in public schools, because that
clause was designed to protect those convicted of a crime, not those in
schools.[270]
The ruling in Ingraham was supported by only a narrow majority of the
Court.[271]
The dissent notes that "the constitutional provision is against cruel and
unusual punishments; nowhere is that prohibition limited or modified by the
language of the Constitution.... No one can deny that spanking of
schoolchildren is 'punishment' under any reasonable reading of the word."[272]

Ingraham establishes that children have the right to
personal security that is jeopardized when corporal punishment is administered,[273]
and that the child "has a strong interest in procedural safeguards that
minimize the risk of wrongful punishment."[274] Nonetheless, the
Supreme Court held that imposing additional safeguards-such as prior notice and
a hearing before corporal punishment is administered-would be costly and would
intrude on the decision-making of the public school authorities.[275]
Other federal courts have ruled that adequate state tort law or common law
remedies exist for excessive corporal punishment.[276]
Yet these remedies are often illusory. The dissent in Ingraham argues
that more process is needed: "even if the student could sue for good faith
error in the infliction of punishment, the lawsuit occurs after the punishment
has been finally imposed. The infliction of physical pain is final and
irreparable; it cannot be undone[.]"[277] US courts should
bring this jurisprudence into line with international standards and protect
children from all forms of corporal punishment.

Incomplete Protection under US Federal Law for
Students with Disabilities

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is the
primary federal statute requiring provision of education to students with
disabilities.[278]Students who qualify for assistance under IDEA receive an individual
education program spelling out the specific educational and related services to
be provided to meet their needs.[279]
IDEA does not directly address discipline unless it amounts to a change in
placement-that is, a significant suspension (typically for 10 or more days) or
expulsion.[280]

During the George W. Bush administration, the Office of
Special Education Programs-the relevant federal administrative body within the
Department of Education-informally took the position that IDEA does not
expressly prohibit the use of physical restraints on students with
disabilities.[281]
If restraint is permitted by state law, the IEP team must consider whether its
use is consistent with the terms of a given IEP, and "should" consider the use
of positive behavioral interventions regardless of whether the state law
permits the use of restraint.[282]
Though there is not substantial case law, courts have held that corporal
punishment is "in-class" discipline and is not prohibited or regulated by the
IDEA.[283]

Immunity for Educators

States that permit school corporal punishment provide legal
immunity for paddlers.[284]
In Mississippi, for example, the only way to prevail in a lawsuit against an
educator for corporal punishment is if the educator's conduct constitutes a
criminal offense, or if she acted with a "malicious purpose."[285]
These immunity laws make it extremely difficult for parents to pursue legal
action against school officials who have injured children in their care.

XI. Conclusion

Corporal punishment is abusive, ineffective, and violates
international human rights law: it should be immediately abolished in the US. Children like Landon and Jonathan, profiled at the beginning of this report, suffer the
consequences of these abusive practices on a daily basis. Given the particular
vulnerability of students with disabilities, they must receive immediate
protection from all forms of physical violence in schools, including but not
limited to paddling, beating, and excessive restraint. Corporal punishment
violates children's right to freedom from cruel, inhuman, or degrading
treatment, and contributes to a hostile school environment in which students
struggle to learn. Landon, Jonathan, and their peers already face enormous
obstacles to obtaining an inclusive education: they deserve a safe school
environment in which they can learn, grow, and reach their full potential.

Corporal punishment is abusive for all children, but it has
particularly severe effects for students with disabilities. Not only is it
ineffective in teaching them appropriate behaviors, it can cause lasting mental
and physical injury, and it can make students aggressive and unable to learn.
For students with disabilities, corporal punishment can be followed directly by
a decline in their medical conditions.

Despite their particular vulnerability to harm from corporal
punishment, and their special need for care and guidance in the public school
system, students with disabilities are subjected to these practices at
disproportionately high rates. This affects these students' rights to
non-discrimination and an inclusive education. When parents try to defend their
children's rights, they can face serious obstacles even to obtaining basic information.

These discriminatory, abusive, and ineffective practices
should be abolished in US schools. There are better methods of providing
effective school discipline, including positive behavioral support systems that
enable educators to respond to children's individual needs. It is past time for
US states to ban paddling and all other forms of physical punishment, and
provide adequate protection and a decent education for students with
disabilities.

Acknowledgments

The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch
thank all of the students, parents, family members, teachers, administrators,
superintendents, school board officials, advocates, and others who shared their
views and experiences with us for this report.

This report was researched and written by Alice Farmer,
Aryeh Neier fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights
Watch. Additional legal research and drafting was conducted by James Felakos, disability rights fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union, and Kate Stinson,
intern with the American Civil Liberties Union. This report was edited by Jamil Dakwar, director of the Human Rights Program at the American Civil Liberties Union; David
Fathi, director of the US Program at Human Rights Watch; Iain Levine, program director
at Human Rights Watch; and Clive Baldwin, senior legal adviser at Human Rights
Watch. Additional review was provided by James Felakos; Chris Hansen, attorney
with the American Civil Liberties Union; Lois Whitman, director of the
Children's Rights Division at Human Rights Watch; Joseph Amon, director of the
Health and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch; Jane Hudson of the
National Disability Rights Network; and Jennifer Leach, Head of Psychology at
the McCarton Center for Developmental Pediatrics.

Abigail Marshak, US Program associate at Human Rights Watch,
provided research and production assistance. Additional research assistance was
provided by Anjali Dalal, Greer Feick, Lindsey Kaley, Joe Pace, Brian Ward, and
Nate Freed Wessler, interns with the American Civil Liberties Union.

We express our deep appreciation to the leaders, staff, and
volunteers of non-profit organizations, after-school programs, community
groups, and other organizations who assisted enormously with our research.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch
are grateful to the Open Society Institute for its support of the Aryeh Neier
fellowship.

[3]
Human Rights Watch/ACLU, A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of
Children in US Public Schools, August 2008, http://www.hrw.org/en/content/a-violent-education.
A Violent Education focuses on corporal punishment in general; this
report focuses on corporal punishment of students with disabilities.

[4]
The White House, "Remarks by the President on Signing of UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Proclamation," July 24, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-Rights-of-Persons-with-Disabilities-Proclamation-Signing/
(accessed July 31, 2009).

[5]
This report does not examine corporal punishment in residential treatment
facilities or other psychiatric facilities.

[6]
Some physical force is permitted under international law, but only where it is
needed to protect "a child or others" and not to punish. "The principle of the
minimum necessary use of force for the shortest necessary period of time must
always apply." UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8,
The Right of the Child to Protection from Corporal Punishment and Other Cruel
or Degrading Forms of Punishment, UN Doc. CRC/C/GC/8 (2006), para. 15.

[7]
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8, para. 11.

[10]
Sickle cell anemia is a condition which is characterized by pain crises, or
"unpredictable episodes of severe and sometimes excruciating pain." Section on
Hematology/Oncology, Committee on Genetics, "Health Supervision for Children
With Sickle Cell Disease," Pediatrics, vol. 109, March 2002, pp.526-535.

[25]
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8, para. 11. The
Committee on the Rights of the Child offers the authoritative interpretation of
the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in addition to its role as the
body charged with overseeing governmental implementation of the treaty.

[26]
"Restraint" is defined as any manual method, physical or mechanical device,
material, or equipment that immobilizes or reduces the ability of an individual
to move his or her arms, legs, body, or head freely. US Government
Accountability Office (GAO), "Seclusions and Restraints: Selected Cases of
Death and Abuse at Public and Private Schools and Treatment Centers,"
GAO-09-719T, May 19, 2009, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09719t.pdf (accessed
July 29, 2009), p. 1.

[27]
American Correctional Association, "Standards for Juvenile Correctional
Facilities," 3-JTS-3A-31, February 2003 ("Use of Force: Written policy,
procedure, and practice restrict the use of physical force to instances of
justifiable self-defense, protection of others, protection of property, and
prevention of escapes, and then only as a last resort and in accordance with
appropriate statutory authority. In no event is physical force justifiable as
punishment[.]").

[28]
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8, para. 15
(commenting on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted
November 20, 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, annex, 44 UN GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 167, UN
Doc. A/44/49 (1989), entered into force September 2, 1990, signed by the United States February 16, 1995, arts. 19, 28(2), and 37) ("The Committee recognizes that
there are exceptional circumstances in which teachers and others … may be
confronted by dangerous behavior which justifies the use of reasonable
restraint to control it. Here too there is a clear distinction between the use
of force motivated by the need to protect a child or others and the use of
force to punish. The principle of the minimum necessary use of force for the
shortest necessary period of time must always apply.").

[30]
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8, para. 11
(defining corporal punishment as "any punishment in which physical force is
used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light….
In the view of the Committee, corporal punishment is invariably degrading.").

[31]
For a thorough discussion of the mechanics of paddling, see Human Rights
Watch/ACLU, A Violent Education.

[38]
Human Rights Watch interview with Gerardo H., who recently left high school, Midland, Texas, February 25, 2008 ("This one time, like the other times, I had to stand up,
and put my hands on the chair … and then, 'pop, pop.'")

[39]
Email from Deena S., mother of boy who was paddled, to ACLU, May 20, 2009.

[40]
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8, para. 15
(commenting on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, arts. 19, 28(2), and
37).

[43]
Children on the autism spectrum may be "non-verbal" or unable to communicate:
"All children with autism demonstrate some degree of qualitative impairment… of
communication." American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Children with
Disabilities, "The Pediatrician's Role in the Diagnosis and Management of
Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children," Pediatrics, vol. 107, 2001, pp.
1221-1226; see alsoMelanie Manning, MD, et al., "Terminal 22q Deletion
Syndrome: A Newly Recognized Cause of Speech and Language Disability in the
Autism Spectrum," Pediatrics, vol. 114 no. 2, 2004, pp.451-457.

[51]
The term "autism spectrum" refers to a set of five specific syndromes (Rett
Syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, autism, pervasive developmental
disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), and Asperger's Syndrome) which are
characterized by neurological impairments in three major categories of
behavior, including social skills, communication, and repetitive and
stereotyped behaviors. Johnny Matson and Santino LoVullo, "A Review of
Behavioral Treatments for Self-Injurious Behaviors of Persons with Autism
Spectrum Disorders," Behavior Modification, vol. 32 no. 1, January 2008,
pp. 61-62.

[59]
"Restraint" is defined as any manual method, physical or mechanical device,
material, or equipment that immobilizes or reduces the ability of an individual
to move his or her arms, legs, body, or head freely. US Government
Accountability Office, "Seclusions and Restraints," p. 1. As analyzed by the
National Disability Rights Network (NDRN), there are no explicit federal
requirements, and only a patchwork of incomplete state laws, governing the use
of restraint in schools. National Disability Rights Network, "School is Not
Supposed to Hurt: Investigative Report on Abusive Restraint and Seclusion in
Schools," January 2009, pp. 10-11 and Appendix 1.

[60]
US Government Accountability Office, "Seclusions and Restraints," p.5;
National Disability Rights Network, "School is Not Supposed to Hurt," pp.
13-27.

[61]
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8, para. 15
(commenting on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, arts. 19, 28(2), and
37).

[63]
National Disability Rights Network, "School is Not Supposed to Hurt," p. 13.

[64]
Ibid. See also US Government Accountability Office, "Seclusions and
Restraints," p. 7 ("facedown or other restraints that block air to the lungs
can be deadly").

[65]
National Disability Rights Network, "School is Not Supposed to Hurt," pp.
13-14.

[66]
Ibid., pp. 14-15 (The allegations documented by NDRN: A Michigan boy with
autism died while being physically restrained at school by four employees who
pinned him face-down for 60-70 minutes; the boy became non-responsive after 45
minutes but the restraint was continued. A Texas middle school student died
after his teacher held him down, despite the student's assertion "I can't breathe."
A Wisconsin girl was suffocated and killed at a mental health day treatment
facility when several adult staff pinned her to the floor in prone restraint.)
See also US Government Accountability Office, "Seclusions and Restraints," p. 8
(referring to cases of death following prone restraint).

[70]Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Michigan, and Pennsylvania all have bans on prone restraint.
National Disability Rights Network, "School is Not Supposed to Hurt," pp.
11-13; see also US Government Accountability Office, "Seclusions and Restraints,"
p. 7.

[74]US
Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), "Civil Rights Data
Collection 2006," March 26, 2008,
http://ocrdata.ed.gov/ocr2006rv30/xls/2006Projected.html (accessed August 8,
2008). The US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, has been
conducting a biennial survey of the nation's public elementary and secondary
schools since 1968. The Civil Rights Data Collection is conducted pursuant to
34 C.F.R. Section 100.6(b) of the Department of Education regulation
implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Information is collected
on enrollment and discipline, among other topics, by race and by gender. The
data collection is a rolling stratified sample of approximately 6,000 districts
and 60,000 schools within those districts, which facilitates state and national
projections of data. The 2006 Civil Rights Data Collection contains information
on 5,929 public school districts and 62,484 schools in those school districts,
and provides information reflecting the 2006-2007 school year. OCR, "Civil Rights
Data Collection 2006," "About the Data," http://ocrdata.ed.gov/ocr2006rv30/aboutdat.html
(accessed August 8, 2008); OCR, "Civil Rights Data Collection 2006," "Data
Collection," http://ocrdata.ed.gov/ocr2006rv30/wdscoll.html (accessed August 8,
2008); Human Rights Watch telephone interview with an official at the US
Department of Education who chose to remain anonymous, Washington, DC, April
15, 2008.

[75]
Defined here (and by the OCR) as students who qualify for federal services
under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004, sec. 602
(PL 108-446) (20 U.S.C. 1400) ("(A) In general. The term 'child with a
disability' means a child (i) with mental retardation, hearing impairments
(including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments
(including blindness), serious emotional disturbance (referred to in this title
as 'emotional disturbance'), orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain
injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities; and (ii)
who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services. (B) Child
aged 3–9 - The term 'child with a disability' for a child aged 3 through 9 (or
any subset of that age range, including ages 3 through 5), may, at the
discretion of the State and the local educational agency, include a child - (i)
experiencing developmental delays, as defined by the State and as measured by
appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures, in 1 or more of the
following areas: physical development; cognitive development; communication
development; social or emotional development; or adaptive development; and (ii)
who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.").

[76]
Defined here (and by the OCR) as students who qualify for federal services
under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, sec. 504 (29 USCA Section 701 et seq.)
("The term 'disability' means (A) except as otherwise provided in subparagraph
(B), a physical or mental impairment that constitutes or results in a
substantial impediment to employment; or (B) for the purposes of sections 701,
711, and 712 of this title and subchapters II, IV, V, and VII of this chapter,
a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major
life activities") .

[90]
OCR, "Civil Rights Data Collection Individual School Report: ED102, Reporting
Requirement," March 31, 2005,
www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/pbdmi/surveytool/crdcollection/ed102_inst.pdf
(accessed August 8, 2008), p. 4 ("Enter the number of students who … received
corporal punishment. Count each student only once regardless of the number of
times punished."); Human Rights Watch telephone interview with an official at
the US Department of Education who chose to remain anonymous, Washington, DC,
April 15, 2008 (reporting that the OCR does not have the resources to perform
external audits of the school districts' reports, but noting that they do check
that a district does not report more corporal punishment than enrollment, which
would indicate that a school district reported number of instances, as opposed
to number of students).

[92]
Human Rights Watch interview with a superintendent of a mid-sized urban
district in the Mississippi Delta, December 12, 2007.

[93]
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8, para 11.

[94]
See, for example, US Government Accountability Office, "Seclusions and
Restraints"; National Disability Rights Network, "School is Not Supposed to
Hurt."

[95]
Email to the ACLU from an official at the US Department of Education who chose
to remain anonymous, June 23, 2009, (stating that OCR does not make data
projections for states without legal corporal punishment, and they do not look
at reported data for those states).

[96]
See, for example, US Government Accountability Office, "Seclusions and
Restraints"; National Disability Rights Network, "School is Not Supposed to
Hurt."

[97]
US Government Accountability Office, "Seclusions and Restraints," p. 4.

[108]
Human Rights Watch interview with a superintendent of a mid-sized urban
district in the Mississippi Delta, December 12, 2007.

[109]
For example, students with autism often have trouble with "normal" school
behavior or socialization, as "[t]he regression, or failure to progress,
affects language, play, and social interaction and occasionally other skills."
Lorna Wing, "The Autistic Spectrum," The Lancet, vol. 350 no. 9093,
December 13, 1997, pp. 1761-1766.

[113]
Under human rights law, in "exceptional circumstances ... dangerous behavior
[may justify] the use of reasonable restraint," but that force must be the
minimum amount necessary for the shortest period of time, and must never be
used to punish.UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General
Comment No. 8, para. 15 (commenting on the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, arts. 19, 28(2), and 37).

[114]
"Corporal Punishment in Schools: Position Paper of the Society for Adolescent
Medicine," Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 32, 2003, p. 388
("punished children become more rebellious and are more likely to demonstrate
vindictive behavior"); UN General Assembly, Report of the independent expert
for the United Nations study on violence against children, World Report on
Violence against Children,Paulo Pinheiro, Independent Expert,
A/61/299, August 29, 2006, http://www.violencestudy.org/IMG/pdf/English.pdf
(accessed July 31, 2009) , p.132 (reviewing North American studies that have
found a direct correlation between abusive behavior from educators and the
prevalence of violence or bullying among children).

[122]
The University of Maryland Medical Center notes that a complication in sickle
cell patients is that "the misshapen cells can block the major blood vessels
that supply the brain with oxygen.Any interruption in the
flow of blood and oxygen to the brain can result in devastating neurological
impairment." University of Maryland Medical Center, http://www.umm.edu/blood/sickle.htm(accessed June 2, 2009).

[125]
The program was run at the local elementary school and governed by the school
district policy on discipline. Early Childhood Center, "Student-Parent
Handbook, 2007-2008," [name of location withheld], on file with Human Rights
Watch (referring to the [name withheld] School District Student Code of
Conduct, on file with Human Rights Watch).

[126]
ADHD includes three groups of behavior symptoms: inattention, hyperactivity,
and impulsivity. Symptoms of ADHD include having a very hard time paying
attention; inability to stay seated; squirming and fidgeting; and acting and
speaking without thinking. American Academy of Pediatrics, "Parenting Corner
Q&A: ADHD," http://www.aap.org/publiced/BR_ADHD.htm (accessed June 10,
2009) (listing symptoms of ADHD).

[128]
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act prohibits expulsions or significant
suspensions ("changes of placement") for conduct that is a manifestation of
disability. 20 U.S.C. 1415 (k), 34 C.F.R. sec. 300.530. However, IDEA does not
necessarily apply to in-class discipline or other discipline that does not
amount to a change in placement. It therefore does not effectively prohibit
corporal punishment for conduct that is a manifestation of a child's
disability. See, for example, Cole by Cole v. Greenfield-Central Community
Sch., 657 F.Supp. 56, 58-59 (S.D. Ind. 1986) (student with disabilities "is
not entitled to any unique exemptions or protections from a school's normal
disciplinary procedures regarding corporal punishment because of his
handicap."); B.A.L. v. Apple, No.00-0068-C-B/G, 2001 WL 1135024, *6
(S.D. Ind. Sep. 21, 2001) (Same).

[129]
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. sec.794, states: "No otherwise
qualified individual with a disability in the United States ... shall, solely
by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from participation in, be
denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or
activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

[131]
Courts are mixed in their analysis of whether adverse actions directed against
individuals for manifestations of their disabilities are prohibited
discrimination (1) "because of" disability (disparate treatment), (2) a failure
to accommodate the known aspects of a disability, or (3) application of neutral
policies that have the effect of discriminating against individuals with
disabilities (disparate impact). The majority of cases considering the issue
occur in the employment area. Some have concluded that adverse action for
manifestations are prohibited under one or more of these theories. See
Teahan v. Metro-North Commuter Railroad, 951 F.2d 511, 516 (2d Cir. 1991)
(a plaintiff satisfies the "solely by reason of" handicap requirement of the
Rehabilitation Act by showing that the employer "justifies termination based on
conduct caused by the handicap."); Den Hartog v. Wasatch Academy, 129
F.3d 1076, 1087 (10th Cir. 1997) (under disparate impact theory under the ADA,
"certain levels of disability-caused conduct [] have to be tolerated or
accommodated.") The majority view in US federal courts, however, holds that
people with disabilities can be subjected to adverse action, sometimes
concluding that the action was taken not because of the disability but due to
the conduct, or that in light of the conduct, in the employment realm, the
employee was not qualified for the position because of the conduct. SeeCheryl
L. Anderson, "What Is 'Because of the Disability' under the Americans with
Disabilities Act? Reasonable Accommodation, Causation, and the Windfall
Doctrine," Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, vol. 27, 2006,
p. 323; Kelly Cahill Timmons, "Accommodating Misconduct Under the Americans
with Disabilities Act," Florida Law Review, vol. 57, 2005, p. 208
(noting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth
Edition (DSM-IV) as defining certain mental impairments as "likely to manifest
themselves in the form of [mis]conduct", and discussing cases).

[135]
National Research Council, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and
Education, Committee on Educational Interventions for Children With Autism,
Catherine Lord and James McGee, eds., Educating Children With Autism (Washington,
DC: National Academy Press; 2001) p. 27.

[145]
Similar scenarios have been studied in the context of parental physical
punishment, where research suggests that parents of children with communication
problems may resort to physical discipline because of frustration over what
they perceive as intentional failure to respond to verbal guidance, or where
children's behavioral characteristics may become frustrating. Roberta Hibbard,
Larry Desch, American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect,
and American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Children With Disabilities, "Maltreatment
of children with disabilities," Pediatrics, vol. 199 no. 5, May 2007, p.
1020.

[161]
"Corporal Punishment in Schools: Position Paper of the Society for Adolescent
Medicine," Journal of Adolescent Health, p. 388. In the United Nations
Secretary-General's worldwide Study on Violence against Children, physical
punishment in schools is noted as one factor that contributes to absenteeism,
dropping out, and lack of motivation for academic achievement. Pinheiro, Report
of the independent expert for the United Nations study on violence against
children, p. 130.

[162]
End Physical Punishment of Children (EPOCH), "Newsletter," vol. 1, issue 11,
Fall 2007, http://www.stophitting.com/disathome/newsletter/EPOCH_Newsletter_2007v1Iss11.pdf
(accessed August 8, 2008). Whiteside continues, "We feel it is important for
public health workers, teachers, and others concerned for the emotional and
physical health of children and youth to support the adoption of alternative
methods for the achievement of self-control and responsible behavior in
children and adolescents."

[163]
Sandra de Hotman, "Dissertation: A Comparison of School Systems in Alabama
Using Corporal Punishment and Not Using Corporal Punishment on Selected
Demographic Variables," 1997, unpublished document on file with Human Rights
Watch (finding a statistically significant correlation between districts that
use corporal punishment and districts with higher drop-out rates).

[167]
Sickle cell anemia is a condition which is characterized by pain crises, or
"unpredictable episodes of severe and sometimes excruciating pain." Section on
Hematology/Oncology; Committee on Genetics, "Health Supervision for Children
With Sickle Cell Disease," Pediatrics, pp.526-535.

[171]
The ACLU and Human Rights Watch are unaware of any medical studies directly addressing
the impact of corporal punishment on students with disabilities. However,
comparable research on maltreatment (including physical abuse) of people with
intellectual disabilities suggests profound effects: "Among the general
population, exposure to maltreatment has been shown to produce a range of
sequelae, including compromised psychological health … In addition to these
consequences, people with disabilities may develop secondary disabilities
and/or suffer loss of independence … For example, a person with an intellectual
disability may develop … a secondary mobility disability as a result of
physical abuse." Willi Horner-Johnson and Charles Drum, "Prevalence of
Maltreatment of People with Intellectual Disabilities: A Review of Recently
Published Research," Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities
Research Reviews, vol. 12 no. 1, 2006, p. 57.

[173]
A sickle cell crisis occurs when sickled red blood cells form clumps in the
bloodstream. (Other cells also may play a role in this clumping process.) These
clumps of cells block blood flow through the small blood vessels in the limbs
and organs. This can cause pain and organ damage. National Heart Lung and Blood
Institute: Diseases and Conditions Index (available at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Sca/SCA_SignsAndSymptoms.html
(accessed July 31, 2009)).

[176]
American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Children with Disabilities, "The
Pediatrician's Role in the Diagnosis and Management of Autism Spectrum Disorder
in Children," Pediatrics, pp. 1221-1226; Isabelle Rapin, MD, "Autistic
Children: Diagnosis and Clinical Features," Pediatrics, vol. 87, May
1991, pp. 751-760.

[179]
Some children with autism exhibit insensitivity to pain, for instance, "some
children will bang their heads until they have a lump on each temple or bite
their hands until they are permanently scarred." Children with this reduced
responsiveness to pain in some cases do not cry even when severely hurt.
Isabelle Rapin, MD, "Autistic Children: Diagnosis and Clinical Features," Pediatrics,
pp. 751-760.

[201]
Most states require compulsory enrollment in school for school-age children; if
a child does not enroll or attend, a truancy officer may petition a youth court
or other supervisory jurisdiction to bring about the child's attendance. See,
for example, Miss. Code Ann. sec. 37-13-91(6)-(7) and sec. 37-22-53(2)(b)-(c)
(specifying Mississippi laws on truancy); S.D. Codified Laws sec. 13-27-19
(specifying South Dakota law on truancy); 105 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/26-5
(specifying Illinois laws on truancy). See generally, National Center for
School Engagement, "Guidelines for a National Definition of Truancy and
Calculating Rates," August 2006 (available at http://www.schoolengagement.org/TruancypreventionRegistry/Admin/Resources/Resources/GuidelinesforaNationalDefinitionofTruancyandCalculatingRates.pdf
(accessed July 31, 2009)). Most educators and court personnel who deal with
truancy define it as an unexcused absence from school; however, beyond this
general understanding lie state and local definitions that qualify and quantify
truancy through statutes, policies, regulations, and even school building codes
of student conduct. Variation in different elements of truancy includes: (1)
whether or not an absence that is excused by a parent but not by school
officials is still a truancy; (2) whether truancy applies even if only part of
the day is unexcused; (3) whether truancy is determined only if a case is
reviewed; (4) whether truancy is a term reserved for cases that are referred to
court; (5) whether truancy only applies to students within the ages of
compulsory school attendance. Ibid., p. 1.

[209]
National Disability Rights Network, "School is Not Supposed to Hurt," pp.
35-38.

[210]
Major school districts have initiated such changes. For examples, see Los
Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), "Discipline Foundation Policy:
School-Wide Positive Behavior Support," March 27, 2007, http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/docs/PAGE/CA_LAUSD/FLDR_ORGANIZATIONS/STUDENT_HEALTH_HUMAN_SERVICES/SHHS/DISCIPLINE_POLICY/BUL-3638.0.PDF
(accessed August 8, 2008) (requiring every school in the district to adopt and
implement a school-wide positive behavior support discipline plan); Kentucky
General Assembly, "Legislative Declaration on Goals for Commonwealth's
Schools-Model Curriculum Framework," July 14, 2000, http://www.lrc.ky.gov/krs/158-00/6451.PDF
(accessed August 8, 2008) (providing a framework for schools to incorporate
character education into curriculum to eliminate barriers to achievement);
Chicago Public School Board, "Chicago Public Schools Policy Manual: Student
Code of Conduct for the Chicago Public Schools for the 2007-2008 School Year,"
June 27, 2007, sec. 705.5, http://policy.cps.k12.il.us/documents/705.5.pdf
(accessed August 8, 2008) (revising the "Student Code of Conduct" to reflect a
comprehensive approach to student discipline and including components of
restorative justice, alternatives to out-of-school suspension, and other
measures aimed at creating a safe and positive environment for students and
school personnel).

[212]
US Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative
Services, "Safeguarding our Children: An Action Guide," April 21, 2000,
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/actguide/action_guide.pdf (accessed August
8, 2008), p. 12 (noting that positive behavior support is based on three
important characteristics: "[a]n explanation of why the behavior is a problem,
an explanation of which rule was violated, and the provision of opportunities
to learn appropriate behaviors and to correct mistakes").

[213]
See, for example, Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, "Unsafe in the
Schoolhouse," p. 3 ("Positive behavioral supports used research-based
strategies that combine behavioral analysis with person-centered values to
lessen problem behaviors while teaching replacement skills. These proactive
practices teach children to build social relationships and skills they need to
progress to adulthood….").

[214]
Nancy Jones and Jody Feder, "The Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Public
Schools: The Legal Issues," Congressional Research Service, 7-5700, April 14,
2009, p. 8.

[221]
National Disability Rights Network, "School is Not Supposed to Hurt"; see also
Ian Arthur, "Literature Review: Time-Out, Seclusion, and Restraint in Indiana
Public-Schools," March 2008, http://www.in.gov/ipas/files/SR_Lit_Review_Final_AA.pdf
(accessed July 31, 2009) (discussing best practices on PBS).

[222]
National Disability Rights Network, "School is Not Supposed to Hurt."

[232]
See Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, concluded May 23, 1969, 1155
U.N.T.S. 331, entered into force January 27, 1980, art. 18. Although the United States has signed but not ratified the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, it
regards this convention as "the authoritative guide to current treaty law and
practice." S. Exec. Doc. L., 92d Cong., 1st sess. (1971), p. 1.

[233]
The White House, "Remarks by the President on Signing of UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Proclamation."

[234]
UN General Assembly, Declaration on the Rights of the Child, Resolution 1386
(XIV), November 20, 1959. The United States was one of the then 78 members of
the UN General Assembly, which voted unanimously to adopt the declaration. While
United Nations General Assembly resolutions do not in and of themselves
constitute binding international law, passage of resolutions by unanimous
consent is strong authority for asserting their status as customary
international law. Stephen Schwebel, "The Effect of Resolutions of the U.N.
General Assembly on Customary International Law," American Society of
International Law Proceedings, vol. 73, 1979, p. 301. Furthermore, article
19 of the American Convention on Human Rights states that "[e]very minor child
has the right to the measures of protection required by his condition as a
minor on the part of his family, society, and the state." American Convention
on Human Rights ("Pact of San José, Costa Rica"), adopted November 22, 1969,
O.A.S. Treaty Series No. 36, 1144 U.N.T.S. 123, entered into force July 18,
1978, reprinted in Basic Documents Pertaining to Human Rights in the
Inter-American System, OEA/Ser.L.V/II.82 doc.6 rev.1 at 25 (1992), art. 19.

[235]
The UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child requires that "[t]he child who is
physically, mentally or socially handicapped shall be given the special
treatment, education and care required by his particular condition." United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, Principle 5, G.A. Res. 1386
(XIV), 14 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 19, U.N. Doc. A/4354.

[236] Committee on the
Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 9, The Rights of Children with
Disabilities, UN Doc. CRC/C/GC/9 (2006), para. 42.

[245]
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 8, para. 18.

[246]
Vernor Munoz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education,
Human Rights Council, Report: The Right to Education of Persons with
Disabilities. UN Document SA/HRC/4/29 (19 February 2007).
Available at: www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/4session/A.HRC.4.29.pdf
(accessed July 31, 2009).

[247]
CRPD, article 24(2)(b). Similarly, the U.S. Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act grants persons with disabilities the right to a "free appropriate
public education." 20 U.S.C. sec. 1400(d)(1)(A) (2005).

[248]
Vernor Munoz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education,
Human Rights Council, Report: The Right to Education of Persons with
Disabilities, para. 22; see also, UNESCO and Ministry of Education and Science
of Spain, "Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs
Education," adopted by the World Conference on Special Needs Education: Access
and Quality, Salamanca, Spain, June 7-10, 1994, para. 2.

[249]
The White House, "Remarks by the President on Signing of UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Proclamation."

[250]
For a more detailed legal analysis of the human rights laws at issue in this
context, see Human Rights Watch/ACLU, A Violent Education, pp. 105-107.

[253]
CRPD, art. 4. Discrimination is defined broadly to include "distinction,
exclusion or restriction on the basis of disability which has the purpose or
effect of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an
equal basis with others, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms in the
political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field." Ibid.,
art. 2.

[254]
CRC, art. 2. Furthermore, students with disabilities have the right to
non-discriminatory access to education. Convention Against Discrimination in
Education, UNESCO, adopted 14 Dec. 1960, Articles 1, 4.

[257]
CRC, art. 5 ("States Parties shall respect the responsibilities, rights, and
duties of parents … to provide, in a manner consistent with the evolving
capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by
the child of the rights recognized in the present Convention.").

[258]
For a more detailed legal analysis of the laws at issue in this context, see
Human Rights Watch/ACLU, A Violent Education, pp. 109-113.

[260]The Paquete-Habana, 175 U.S. 677, 700 (1900). See also Murray
v. The Charming Betsy, 6 U.S. (2 Cranch) 64, 118 (1804) (statutes "can
never be construed to violate … rights … further than is warranted by the law
of nations"); Harold Hongju Koh, "Is International Law Really State Law?" Harvard
Law Review, vol. 111, 1998, p. 1824 (noting that customary international
law is federal common law and preempts inconsistent state practices).

[261]Asakura v. City of Seattle, 265 U.S. 332 (1924) (holding that a treaty
made under the authority of the United States stands on the same footing of
supremacy as do the provisions of the Constitution and laws of the United
States and "operate[s] of itself without the aid of any legislation, state or
national; and it will be applied and given authoritative effect by the
courts"). See also Maiorano v. Baltimore & Ohio R. R. Co., 213 U.S. 268, 272 (1888); Baldwin v. Franks, 120 U.S. 678 (1887); Head Money Cases, 112 U.S. 580, 598 (1884); Chew Heong v. United States, 112 U.S. 536, 540 (1884); Foster v.
Neilson, 2 Pet. 253, 314 (1829).

[263]
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR),
"Convention on the Rights of the Child,"
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/ratification/11.htm (accessed August 8,
2008) Singapore's declaration reads: "The Republic of Singapore considers that
articles 19 and 37 of the Convention do not prohibit-(a) the application of any
prevailing measures prescribed by law for maintaining law and order in the
Republic of Singapore; (b) measures and restrictions which are prescribed by
law and which are necessary in the interests of national security, public
safety, public order, the protection of public health or the protection of the
rights and freedom of others; or (c) the judicious application of corporal
punishment in the best interest of the child." A number of states have
interpreted Singapore's declaration as a reservation and objected to it as
contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention. "UN Treaty Collection
Database," (Germany: September 4, 1996; Belgium: September 26, 1996; Italy:
October 4, 1996; The Netherlands: November 6, 1996; Norway: November 29, 1996;
Finland: November 25, 1996; Portugal: December 3, 1996).

[264]
The United States signed the CRC on February 16, 1995 and Somalia signed on May 2, 2002.

[265]
See Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, art. 18 (the United States,
though not a signatory to the Vienna Convention, regards it as "the
authoritative guide to current treaty law and practice." S. Exec. Doc. L., 92d
Cong., 1st sess. (1971), p. 1); Theodor Meron, "The Meaning and Reach of the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination," American Journal of International Law, vol. 79, 1985,
p. 283. The US government has also accepted that it is bound by customary
international law not to defeat a treaty's object and purpose. "Albright Says
U.S. Bound by Nuke Pact; Sends Letters to Nations Despite Senate Vote,"
Washington Times, November 2, 1999 (describing the Clinton administration's
acceptance of obligations under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty despite the
Senate's failure to ratify).

[269]
Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, "North America: Summary of legal status of corporal punishment of children," June 2007,
http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/pages/pdfs/charts/Chart-NorthAmerica.pdf
(accessed August 8, 2008). Compare to Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 660-661 (1977) (the majority, writing in 1977, observed that corporal punishment
"continues to play a role in the public education of school children in most
parts of the country…. We can discern no trend toward its elimination.").

[273]Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 673-674 (1977) (noting that the
liberty interest in personal security is implicated where public school
authorities, acting under color of state law, deliberately punish a child for
misconduct by restraint and infliction of appreciable pain).

[281]
Letter to Anonymous, OSEP, March 17, 2008, 50 IDELR 228. ("While IDEA
emphasizes the use of positive behavioral interventions and supports to address
behavior that impedes learning, IDEA does not flatly prohibit the use of
mechanical restraints or other aversive behavioral techniques for children with
disabilities.")